Pay Question

jimmiblaze

For the last eighteen months I've been on secondment to one of my employers clients as a consultant. Originally it was suppose to be for 6 months (but was extended) and as an incentive I was offered a fixed bonus every month as I'd be away from home. The clients project I have been working on is now going to be taken over by my employer, I'll now be fulfilling a similar role but for my employer rather than the client. As I'm not going to be always based onsite at the client I have a feeling my employer is going to take this bonus away arguing it was towards subsistence and for the inconvienence of been away from home. I'd taken this bonus as a salary increase because the role I was taking on for the client meant taking on additional roles and responsibilities, my employer even acknowledged this fact informally. If I lose this it will certainly make a financial difference to me because it will be equivlent of taking a 20% pay cut. Can my employer just take this bonus away, a friend of mine seems to think that after a certain amount of time an employer has to make changes like this permanent. Unfortunatly I don't really have anything in writing regarding this bonus and it's intended purpose other than my payslips. My payslips used to have separate entries for basic salary and the bonus, from the start of this year its all paid as basic salary. I've queried this thinking my bonus had been incorporated into my basic salary but I've been told that its easier to calculate my monthly salary this way. Any advice or pointers will be grately appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue

I think I would start with ACAS. Your friend is right that there is a certain amount of 'custom and practice' in employment rights, and I'd say that having the whole amount showing as basic salary puts you on stronger ground than if it were still showing as a bonus, given that you have nothing in writing. But I am not an expert.

Presumably you'll still sometimes have to go to the client's company so what you might be able to do is negotiate a decent salary increase, plus a good subsistence allowance for the time you spend away from home. However there can be problems with that, I think, because you're basically being paid expenses greater than those you've actually incurred. Certainly it would be more work for the company's payroll people, P11Ds spring to mind ...