Salary Payment Dispute

pablothian

Hi folks,

My wife has recently quit a job at Manchester City Council as a Teaching Assistant. She was to be paid 12 monthly payments relating to working from September through to July - that is 12 monthly payments for 38 weeks actual work and 5.5 weeks paid holiday.

My reckoning is that she had completed 24 or the 38 weeks actual work when she quit - my calculation suggested that she was still owed around £500 However, Manchester CC have simply said that she finished on 15th March and therefore will need to pay back the rest of the month (she was paid to 31st March). This calculation seems overly simplistic as if she had finished the year she would have been paid for half of July and the whole of August for work done up to the middle of July.
She wrote to them but they held their stance and refused to explain their calculation

There is nothing in the contract to cover this eventuality. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether this is worth pursuing? And is there an ombudsman to deal with this type of thing or would I have to look down a legal route.

Many thanks,

Paul

jobbingmusician

I don't have any expertise in this area, but didn't want simply to read and run. My view is this..

1. I don't see any logical reason why the school should pay your wife for time she hasn't worked. However, I wonder (given the long school holidays) whether she has accumulated some holiday for which she should be paid - which I suppose is the jist of your arguement.

2. HOWEVER, I wonder why she quit mid-term. Don't teachers normally resign at the end of term? I would expect assistants to be subject to the same expectations. What does her contract say about resigning? If there is a written - or even an unwritten - rule that you resign at the end of a term or lose your holiday entitlement, I wouldn't expect her to be paid for the next holiday period.

Happy to be corrected by anyone in the teaching field who knows better!

General_Grant

pablothian wrote: »

Hi folks,

My wife has recently quit a job at Manchester City Council as a Teaching Assistant. She was to be paid 12 monthly payments relating to working from September through to July - that is 12 monthly payments for 38 weeks actual work and 5.5 weeks paid holiday.

My reckoning is that she had completed 24 or the 38 weeks actual work when she quit - my calculation suggested that she was still owed around £500 However, Manchester CC have simply said that she finished on 15th March and therefore will need to pay back the rest of the month (she was paid to 31st March). This calculation seems overly simplistic as if she had finished the year she would have been paid for half of July and the whole of August for work done up to the middle of July.
She wrote to them but they held their stance and refused to explain their calculation

There is nothing in the contract to cover this eventuality. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether this is worth pursuing? And is there an ombudsman to deal with this type of thing or would I have to look down a legal route.

Many thanks,

Paul

38 weeks plus 5.5 weeks = 43.5 weeks and therefore not a full year September to August inclusive.

38 weeks' work would provide just over 4.5 weeks of statutory holiday but I expect that the 5.5 weeks is because the LA offers more annual leave that the statutory minimum. They can make whatever rules they like regarding the accrual of holiday above the minimum.

To work out what she is entitled to, we would need to know actual dates of working and holidays taken (like Christmas/New Year/Easter/May half term).

pablothian

Thanks for the responses:

the working dates were:

2nd September to 14th March.

The holidays were:

2* half term = 2 week
1* term break = 2 week

Total actual holiday breaks she would have taken were 14 weeks (hence the 38 weeks in the contract) but clearly 6 of these were at the end for the summer holidays, which is why I think she was ahead.

The pay was 7/12 of the total actually owed for the year.

She also had some sick but this had been adjusted for.

Cheers,

Paul