Wrong Salary but Contract Already Agreed?

anotheruser

Quick question.

Signed a contract saying I would get £50,830 in training pay, going up to £54k a year after 6 months.
The company wrote to me and said there was an error and the training pay should be £50,320.

They had made an adjustment to the rest of the training which meant I got paid less than the training pay to allow them to recoup the over payment.

Can they do this if I already signed a contract?

Dazed_and_confused

Don't know the legalities but you are looking at less than £150 loss to you once you take into account it was 6 months and you probably would pay 40% tax and national insurance on it (possibly much less than that if you pay student loan or high income child benefit charge) so is it worth falling out with a new employer over it?

TBagpuss

It's a minor change to the contract. Technically they are asking you to agree a variation to the contract, and they may well not be entitled, strictly, to make the deduction from pay where they are effectively backdating the reduction (assuming, of course , the the incorrect figure is in the actual written contract)

Of course, if you refuse,they can terminate your employment.

It's a little petty of them to have raised it given that it relates to a total sum of £250 over the 6 month training period, less than £10 a week, on a salary of £50K, but equally, it would be hard for you to argue that that would create significant hardship for you. You could propose that they implement the change going forward but don't attempt to recoup the backdated amount, bearing in mind that it was their error not yours.