Employment rights

AlanaI

My husband is a team leader at his place of work,where he is paid and extra 80p per hour. His role includes various duties that used to be carried out by management (ordering uniform, scheduling, disciplines etc). During the pandemic all staff were placed on reduced working hours but still full pay,obviously a great situation. However, as of Monday him and 1 other team leader from a different site are required to return to full contract. Other team leaders are not being asked back,nor any staff. Therefore my husband will be completing full 40 hours while his staff work 12 or 18 hour weeks alternately for their full pay. In effect he will be getting less per hours worked than the people he is in charge of. Is this legal? It definitely seems unfair.

Brynsam

It's perfectly legal.  As you say, he's been in  a great situation, so not at all unreasonable that his employer is now expecting him to meet his contractual commitments. Not sure why you think that is unfair?

AlanaI

It's more the fact he will in effect be earning less per hour than the other employees really. How can he be expected to manage employees who are taking home more per hours worked than he is? Also, when he wasnt in work he was working on his paper work at home as he is no longer able to use his office due to social distancing requirements and they are still expecting this despite him working his full hours again 

Mrsn

The first part of your argument in that he will be earning less so to speak whilst undoubtedly frustrating isn’t illegal. There have been other posts on the forum regarding those who have worked through the pandemic and a certain amount of jealousy for those that were furloughed. 

Whilst I understand it I would like to say the fact your husband is back is a good thing. They value what he does and it shows a certain level of job security.... those being left on furlough to the last possible minute might not be so lucky longer term.

TELLIT01

The employer is presumably phasing the return to work.  In that situation it is perfectly normal for those with management or supervisory responsibilities to return before others.  His employer has been more than fair by not reducing their pay, so is it really so unreasonable to expect a bit of flexibility in return?  Clearly the partner of the employee believes so.

theoretica

His colleagues are not being paid more for the hours they work - they are being paid their normal rate for the hours worked, and the employer is also paying them their contracted wage for hours there is lack of work.

If your husband is doing his normal hours in work and then having to do more at home because the office is unavailable then I do think he has a point to ask his boss to arrange things so he isn't going over his normal hours.

Brynsam

AlanaI said:

It's more the fact he will in effect be earning less per hour than the other employees really. How can he be expected to manage employees who are taking home more per hours worked than he is? 

Same way he'd manage them if they were earning less than he earns.

yksi

He was happy earning this pay rate before Covid-19. He's being paid the same amount now to do the same work.
He hasn't lost anything. He is no worse off than before. What is he complaining about exactly?

He should stop thinking about what everyone else is doing and just get back to doing his own job again... he will be happier if he can be grateful that he has a job to go back to. Comparing himself to others will only make him jealous. HIs job is more secure than theirs, they might just find themselves let go rather than brought back.

oh_really

AlanaI said:

Therefore my husband will be completing full 40 hours while his staff work 12 or 18 hour weeks alternately for their full pay. In effect he will be getting less per hours worked than the people he is in charge of. Is this legal? It definitely seems unfair.

Absolutely fine. I worked in a site where an HR role was appointed to carry out a single specific project, pay grade was the same as the (HR) managers post.

TBagpuss

Yes, as others have said, it is perfectly legal . Your husband may also take comfort from the fact that his employer clearly feels he needs your husband full time. If they don't have enough work for other members of staff they may start thinking about reducing staff numbers and making people redundant, or cutting their hours (and pay).

I agree that it would be reasonable for your husband to speak to his boss about the amount of time needed to complete the paperwork and ask that the is taken into account in considering the hours he works - he should decide, before he speaks to his boss, whether his preferred option is to be able to do the paperwork during normal working hours (whether by leaving early / coming in late one a week and doing it at home, or looking at ways he can do it in the office safely) or whether what he would prefer is to ask to be paid for an extra hour or two ( or however long it typically takes per week) to do it on top of the work he does  that is not paperwork, or whether he is asking for that responsibility to be taken over by someone else. He won't necessarily get his choice, but it is sensible if someone is  talking to their manager with a problem, to have a solution to suggest, and it is also sensible to think about the possible solutions which the boss may come up with and think about how practical / acceptable  they would be, so he is not taken by surprise.