Wages cut

Ialwaysgetdone

My friend's son has been working the past couple of years half days Monday to Friday plus full days Saturday and Sunday. The wages for weekdays are just the basic minimum wage I think but the weekend pay was paid at 'weekend rate' which was about time and a half.

Recently he was asked to cover for someone who was off for about 5 weeks and he agreed as long as he was paid at the same rate as the guy who was off which was 39 hours Monday to Friday at normal time plus time and a half Sat and double time Sunday and every second weekend off. They agreed. However, the guy is now ready to come back and my friend's son is going to be put back on his former hours BUT they are now only going to pay him at normal weekday rate for weekends which means he's going to lose about £50 a week from what he used to get. Are they allowed to just do that?

SarEl

Ialwaysgetdone wrote: »

My friend's son has been working the past couple of years half days Monday to Friday plus full days Saturday and Sunday. The wages for weekdays are just the basic minimum wage I think but the weekend pay was paid at 'weekend rate' which was about time and a half.

Recently he was asked to cover for someone who was off for about 5 weeks and he agreed as long as he was paid at the same rate as the guy who was off which was 39 hours Monday to Friday at normal time plus time and a half Sat and double time Sunday and every second weekend off. They agreed. However, the guy is now ready to come back and my friend's son is going to be put back on his former hours BUT they are now only going to pay him at normal weekday rate for weekends which means he's going to lose about £50 a week from what he used to get. Are they allowed to just do that?

Yes. It seems from what you say that it was clear that the enhanced rate was for cover only. So he goes back to his contractual agreement, which was not enhanced.

annie1975_2

SarEl wrote: »

Yes. It seems from what you say that it was clear that the enhanced rate was for cover only. So he goes back to his contractual agreement, which was not enhanced.

I think what the OP is saying is he used to get time and ahalf for weekend before,but now he's only going to get normal time.Which doesn't sound right.He should be back on his original pay before he covered for someone else.

SarEl

annie1975 wrote: »

I think what the OP is saying is he used to get time and ahalf for weekend before,but now he's only going to get normal time.Which doesn't sound right.He should be back on his original pay before he covered for someone else.

Sorry. "Think" doesn't cut it! OP said that they thought the person was getting less than contractual pay. Not being funny, but the law requires more than that. In the interim, overtime policies may have changed. We would need to know the details.

paddedjohn

SarEl wrote: »

Sorry. "Think" doesn't cut it! OP said that they thought the person was getting less than contractual pay. Not being funny, but the law requires more than that. In the interim, overtime policies may have changed. We would need to know the details.

Where did the OP say that? All the OP wants to know is if the lad has any rights to revert back to his original wage structure that he had before he agreed to cover for an absent colleague.

Ialwaysgetdone

Though he has never actually seen or signed a contract he is being put back to his 'original contract' hours but not original contract pay when the absentee returns which was 5 half days (Mon-Fri) and 2 full days Sat and Sun. The Sat and Sun used to be paid at just under time and a half and was actually described as 'weekend rate' as it wasn't overtime. Now they are not going to be paying him 'weekend rate' and he will only get the same rate per hour at weekends as he gets through the week, £6 odds per hour which means he will lose about £48 per week compared to what he used to get for the same hours. He was only just getting by without losing £48 a week.
To make matters more difficult, the company is closing a lot of the branches and trying to find a buyer for the rest so no one he speaks to about it is interested, they are all worried about their jobs. There are others there who only do the weekend and get paid basic rate but he works 7 days a week even though five of them are half days.

He's not in a union or anything, is there anything he can do or anyone he can get advice from about what to do?

bubblegum1985

I would say start looking for another job.

Unfortunately if they are closing branches etc it sounds like what many people have been through and its a case of reduce hours/wages or lose your job. If they are in a situation where they are looking like they may be going under it could be the only way to stop major job losses.

annie1975_2

SarEl wrote: »

Sorry. "Think" doesn't cut it! OP said that they thought the person was getting less than contractual pay. Not being funny, but the law requires more than that. In the interim, overtime policies may have changed. We would need to know the details.

I THINK you read the post wrong..He only wants the wages he was getting before he did them a favour..Not end up on £48 less for the same hours.

Ialwaysgetdone

bubblegum1985 wrote: »

I would say start looking for another job.

Unfortunately if they are closing branches etc it sounds like what many people have been through and its a case of reduce hours/wages or lose your job. If they are in a situation where they are looking like they may be going under it could be the only way to stop major job losses.

That would be fair enough if it was happening to everyone working there but it's not. They are not going under as such, they are withdrawing from the UK

Ialwaysgetdone

annie1975 wrote: »

I THINK you read the post wrong..He only wants the wages he was getting before he did them a favour..Not end up on £48 less for the same hours.

Yes, that's exactly it

bubblegum1985

Did he sign a new contract or anything when he did the 5 weeks work?

If he didnt I cant see how they can change it if its in the contract.