Large pay cut proposed - any advice please?

eadieb

I have been in the same post, with same employer, for 14 years. It is public sector but is not unionised. The organisation is now going through a period of reviewing everyone's pay structures and today our team found out our new terms will be increased hours, sick pay conditions cut, and I will have a 33% cut in my salary.

Are there any employment rules or anything that I can do about such a large pay cut? I will still be doing the exact same job with same job title etc. the employer says the market has changed and our type of job is now being paid at a lower rate due to having to compete to win contracts from the local authority.

KiKi

It is potentially breach of contract, but I don't know the specific regulations relating to changes in pay when it comes to market rates etc. My gut feel is that salaries should be ringfenced until they come into line with market rates rather than cuts being proposed, but I don't know enough.

Can I suggest you post your question on the redundancyforum.co.uk in the employee section for the attention of SarEl. She's an employment barrister who works mainly in the public sector and will be able to give you as definitive an answer as you're likely to get, along with the likely outcome if it was breach of contract.

KiKi

whitewing

Do you mean more hours and a pay cut, or more hours for the same money so effectively a pay cut?

eadieb

hi, thanks for the replies.

My full time hours of working week will be increased from the usual 9 to 5 - 35hours, to be replaced with a full time of 37.5 hours. so that immediately cuts some of my hourly rate of pay. then on top of that my wage will be moved down from 26k to 18k, which is about 33% and then on top of that they are removing our 'essential car user payment' which was just over about another £1000 per year.

whitewing

Wow, that seems pretty shocking to me.

Certainly has to be worth seeking a legal opinion (do you have legal cover as part of household insurance).

Then I guess it is how much you like the job etc etc. The trouble is, even if you can negotiate and win, you may find they do something else another time.

I would also say don't walk out in principal in these econmic times; do get another job lined up first.

dacouch

KiKi wrote: »

It is potentially breach of contract, but I don't know the specific regulations relating to changes in pay when it comes to market rates etc. My gut feel is that salaries should be ringfenced until they come into line with market rates rather than cuts being proposed, but I don't know enough.

Can I suggest you post your question on the redundancyforum.co.uk in the employee section for the attention of SarEl. She's an employment barrister who works mainly in the public sector and will be able to give you as definitive an answer as you're likely to get, along with the likely outcome if it was breach of contract.

KiKi

I miss Sarel, the two that chased her off MSE have a lot to answer for.

Nice to see she gets the respect she deserves on the forum you mentioned. Have bookmarked it

eadieb

yep its been a difficult day. we had a staff briefing for our team and people were pretty shocked at how bad it is. its made a bit worse because our half of the organisations jobs are taking really big cuts in salary because we have to take part in competitive tendering, whereas staff down the corridor whose pay comes from alternative sources are only losing 1 or 2k off their wage.

I live in a rural area and there are absolutely no jobs at all. I do really like my actual job and would have happily carried on forever. I have 4 children and this size cut is a big dent in our standard of living.

I also feel a bit de valued. The message we were given today was that the people who commission our work are not interested in it being done by professionals, they just want to tick a box that some sort of service is being done at the lowest cost.

DVardysShadow

eadieb wrote: »

hi, thanks for the replies.

My full time hours of working week will be increased from the usual 9 to 5 - 35hours, to be replaced with a full time of 37.5 hours. so that immediately cuts some of my hourly rate of pay. then on top of that my wage will be moved down from 26k to 18k, which is about 33% and then on top of that they are removing our 'essential car user payment' which was just over about another £1000 per year.

With such drastic cuts, I would not supply this employer with a car.

pompeyrich

Shocking that they can just slash things as they feel, however the 4 kids might help. Have a quick play on "entitled to", if yours is the only wage coming in, you won't be much worse off as your CTC will go up and you may qualify for some HB or CTB too.

epm-84

Do you know how your salary compares to other roles?

Is your 26k role equivalent to a 20k role in another department, for instance? It might be it was harder to find someone for your role or that you were employed when finances were better.

epm-84

eadieb wrote: »

on top of that they are removing our 'essential car user payment' which was just over about another £1000 per year.

Say with that cut you can only afford insurance which covers commuting and leisure, so unless you have to visit somewhere which is on your way to work then you aren't insured.