Miscalculated salary for years

thebigdipper

Hi all

If anyone could offer some advice I'd appreciate it.

The situation is that my contract states I should get a 30 minute lunch break, which I've been taking for years, but I recently found out that my boss has calculated my salary based on 1 hour lunch breaks.

To me this means I've been working unpaid for 30 minutes each day for years.

When this came up with my boss, in an informal conversation, he said they couldn't do anything about it, and that was that.

But is that true? Is this something I can pursue? And if so, how? I don't want to cause any bad feeling but it seems wrong that he would dismiss it so easily without discussing my options for remuneration.

Thank you very much for listening.

sangie595

If you are salaried, then how is it miscalculated? You have a number of hours that you are required to work and you are paid a rate for working them. So the length of your lunch break would be irrelevant. If you work 37 hours a week, then the length of your lunch break is irrelevant.

But I think it would be hard to do anything about this. And definitely not without causing "any bad feeling". It could equally be claimed that you were careless in not checking your pay (if it is short - which isn't clear).

Stevie_Palimo

Approx. 78 hours a year x lets say 15 years which is 1170 and base this on a wage of say £8.00 with a total of £9360.00 would be an underpayment based on the above.

If it was me and I was underpaid I would certainly not be happy with such a brush off but on the same note would also expect to know what my wages are too the nearest pound, Now with both sides to consider I would do your maths as to what you believe you have been short changed by and ask to discuss it again, Say it calmly but to the point and request that you both reach a fair agreement, This may be accepting a couple of thousand from the Company if they can afford it or a extra few hours on the weekly pay.

If he states that he cannot or will not consider it then you could look into it legally but I would suspect that you will not be working there much longer thereafter and also would you get the full amount back if any as per the part I stated whereby you should know what you are due to get and time limits on claims and so on, This is 3 years for personal injury and I think for anything financial it stands at 6 years so through a court if it went in your favour at my above calculations you would be £3744.00 better off but if the job goes does this money matter ?

Vectis

Start taking 1 hour lunches?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

thebigdipper wrote: »

Hi all

If anyone could offer some advice I'd appreciate it.

The situation is that my contract states I should get a 30 minute lunch break, which I've been taking for years, but I recently found out that my boss has calculated my salary based on 1 hour lunch breaks.

To me this means I've been working unpaid for 30 minutes each day for years.

When this came up with my boss, in an informal conversation, he said they couldn't do anything about it, and that was that.

But is that true? Is this something I can pursue? And if so, how? I don't want to cause any bad feeling but it seems wrong that he would dismiss it so easily without discussing my options for remuneration.

Thank you very much for listening.

Are you paid an annual salary or are you paid hourly?

Oldfatgrumpy

Vectis wrote: »

Start taking 1 hour lunches?

Or perhaps 2 hour lunches, until you've recouped all those half-hours they owe you.

TELLIT01

The question really is whether or not you have been working more than the contracted hours all that time. If your working hours are 9 to 5 with 1 hour lunch and you are working 9 to 5 with 1/2 hour lunch you certainly have a right to be unhappy about the reaction. However, if you are finishing at 4:30 (for a contracted 35 hour week), your pay is correct.
If working 9 - 5 start taking your full lunch hour, and make the fact very obvious.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

The question is whether he is on an annual salary and whether he agreed on the start and finish times and the salary. I have an hour lunch break but I rarely use it. I take 'breaks' when I want and for as long as I want, within reason. If he's working on a production line and paid hourly, the answer to this question is very different from the answer if he is the financial controller of a FTSE 100 company. It's pointless to try and tell him what he should do without knowing this.