Teacher pay rise not been paid

poiuytrewq10

I'm a teacher. As you're probably aware, teachers were granted a pay rise after lots of strike action. It was due to be paid starting autumn 2023. Usually, there's a couple months of delay before we receive them and we get a backdated increase in October or November.

Having checked the payslips today, my colleagues and I have still not been paid this increase. Apparently, the county council have made a mistake (what this is, I don't know) and we won't receive the increase until the end of January. 

In truth, this doesn't affect me too much although it is annoying. However, I have colleagues who are literally having to rethink Christmas spending because of it. These aren't people who are irresponsible with their spending, rather ones with families that have been hit hard by everything costing more and mortgage rates increasing an incredible amount. 

My question is, is there a legal case here because a pay rise that was negotiated and agreed on, that cancelled strike action, has not been paid? I have no understanding of any employment law at all so I could be completely wrong. It does, however, seem unfair that people have not been paid what they are entitled to.

I'm also waiting to see what my union says on the matter as they might have more idea.

Any thoughts are very much appreciated.

tacpot12

The late payment of an agreed pay rise is a breach of contract, but it is almost certain to be remedied before you can get the case into an employment tribunal. You could raise a grievance as the first step; you should wait to see what the union says.

As far as I am aware, you can claim the interest you incur if you are paid late (e.g. if your pay not arriving on time causes you to go into overcraft), but if you are warned that the payrise is not going to be paid on time, I don't think it would be possible to demand a payment of interest incurred as you shouldn't have incurred any interest because you shouldn't have increased your spending once you were told that the payrise wasn't going to be paid on time. That said, there is nothing to stop your union asking the employer to make an ex-gratia payment to cover the lost interest had you been paid the increase on time, and just put it into a savings account. I agree it is unfair not to be paid on time, but sometimes mistakes happen and take a while to correct. I am surprised that it will take two months (two pay cycles) to fix the problem.  
 

EnPointe

OP what is your aim here?

Advance of  pay  , by  an extra emergency pay run if appropriate ? (still  may see some people  get  treated lessfavourably for NI but unlikely if it's teachers  as  it;s norammly part timers near  minimum wage who gwet caught out this way)
accepting the late payment   with interest ?
or  some ideological victory  which doesn;t actually  result in anything of consequence?

74jax

poiuytrewq10 said:

I'm a teacher. As you're probably aware, teachers were granted a pay rise after lots of strike action. It was due to be paid starting autumn 2023. Usually, there's a couple months of delay before we receive them and we get a backdated increase in October or November.

Having checked the payslips today, my colleagues and I have still not been paid this increase. Apparently, the county council have made a mistake (what this is, I don't know) and we won't receive the increase until the end of January. 

In truth, this doesn't affect me too much although it is annoying. However, I have colleagues who are literally having to rethink Christmas spending because of it. These aren't people who are irresponsible with their spending, rather ones with families that have been hit hard by everything costing more and mortgage rates increasing an incredible amount. 

My question is, is there a legal case here because a pay rise that was negotiated and agreed on, that cancelled strike action, has not been paid? I have no understanding of any employment law at all so I could be completely wrong. It does, however, seem unfair that people have not been paid what they are entitled to.

I'm also waiting to see what my union says on the matter as they might have more idea.

Any thoughts are very much appreciated.

Within my LA we received a letter stating when this would taken effect and what the backdated pay would be.  Ours is paid in January, with the backdated amount to September clearly shown.

When did you receive this letter saying you would get it in November's pay?  I think if I read it right, you say you had been told it would be in October, then pushed to November.  Was this in writing?  And what was the reason they didn't make it in October?  If we know this we can best advise on the lack of the LA implementing the increase when they said they would.

Regarding Christmas.....
I can understand people maybe planning on using the 'extra' for Christmas, however if it was only hearsay it would be paid in November then they do have time to rethink, like you say.  I would maybe help them (I'm assuming they are open to discussions with you, especially if they have said they need to rethink) by pointing them to comparisson websites, this website, suggesting using it as an ideal time to cut back etc.  If they were going to use this months pay, then it's the ideal time to make changes to plans as it hasn't been paid yet.

Then in January, maybe help them again with sorting cheaper bills where necessary for the year, and looking at annual spending as a whole.  You can always suggest they head over to our boards where people are really helpful in suggestions, so that the 'extra' they get goes towards any debt or saving to cover for unforeseen events.   

I know you want to help them for this Christmas, but remember Christmas happens every year.  This increase was only since the last quarter, so during the first 3 quarters they were looking at spending x amount.  It's hard but you can only point them in the direct directions.

poiuytrewq10

EnPointe said:

OP what is your aim here?

Advance of  pay  , by  an extra emergency pay run if appropriate ? (still  may see some people  get  treated lessfavourably for NI but unlikely if it's teachers  as  it;s norammly part timers near  minimum wage who gwet caught out this way)
accepting the late payment   with interest ?
or  some ideological victory  which doesn;t actually  result in anything of consequence?

My aim is that my colleagues and I get paid what we are supposed to. As I stated, this is less for me and more for some of my colleagues, who may be put into financial turmoil because they have not received the increase.

For a teacher on UPS 3, they are missing out on £144 a month that they haven't been paid if they haven't received their increase. That's £432 so far this year and £576 by the end of the year. For some people, that is the difference between being able to pay the bills or not, let alone Christmas.

As the previous reply stated, it shouldn't take 2 pay cycles to action the increase. If the threat of legal action or union action speeds that up, I feel that would be justified.

Marcon

poiuytrewq10 said:

I'm a teacher. As you're probably aware, teachers were granted a pay rise after lots of strike action. It was due to be paid starting autumn 2023. Usually, there's a couple months of delay before we receive them and we get a backdated increase in October or November.

Having checked the payslips today, my colleagues and I have still not been paid this increase. Apparently, the county council have made a mistake (what this is, I don't know) and we won't receive the increase until the end of January. 

Have you asked - and asked what action the council will take to ameliorate the position for those you say will be placed in financial difficulty if the backdated pay is not paid until January? 

Opening hostilities without even checking the basics might not be your best approach.

Brie

Could your local union ask that everyone get an advance of £400 paid in December to help those who are struggling through?  It may be much easier (& more private) to get it done for everyone rather than each person who might want it having to ask and have a separate adjustment done to that person's salary in both December (advance) & January (adjustment to balance the advance).

lincroft1710

poiuytrewq10 said:

EnPointe said:

OP what is your aim here?

Advance of  pay  , by  an extra emergency pay run if appropriate ? (still  may see some people  get  treated lessfavourably for NI but unlikely if it's teachers  as  it;s norammly part timers near  minimum wage who gwet caught out this way)
accepting the late payment   with interest ?
or  some ideological victory  which doesn;t actually  result in anything of consequence?

As the previous reply stated, it shouldn't take 2 pay cycles to action the increase. If the threat of legal action or union action speeds that up, I feel that would be justified.

A threat of legal action will do absolutely nothing as by the time any case came to court you would have been paid. It isn't as if the employer is refusing to pay you, just that there has been an unfortunate delay,

sevenhills

74jax said:

Within my LA we received a letter stating when this would taken effect and what the backdated pay would be.  Ours is paid in January, with the backdated amount to September clearly shown.

My LA have said that we will get our pay rise and back-dated pay in Dec, it is an issue that they are delaying so they can benefit from the delay.

EnPointe

poiuytrewq10 said:

EnPointe said:

OP what is your aim here?

Advance of  pay  , by  an extra emergency pay run if appropriate ? (still  may see some people  get  treated lessfavourably for NI but unlikely if it's teachers  as  it;s norammly part timers near  minimum wage who gwet caught out this way)
accepting the late payment   with interest ?
or  some ideological victory  which doesn;t actually  result in anything of consequence?

My aim is that my colleagues and I get paid what we are supposed to. As I stated, this is less for me and more for some of my colleagues, who may be put into financial turmoil because they have not received the increase.

For a teacher on UPS 3, they are missing out on £144 a month that they haven't been paid if they haven't received their increase. That's £432 so far this year and £576 by the end of the year. For some people, that is the difference between being able to pay the bills or not, let alone Christmas.

As the previous reply stated, it shouldn't take 2 pay cycles to action the increase. If the threat of legal action or union action speeds that up, I feel that would be justified.

I'm unsure if you failed to understand what what being asked,  which is somewhat concerning for someone purporting to be a Teacher, or  quite simply  do not  have any understanding outside your own little  public sector  teacher  bubble  

Delayed implementation of pay rises ( regardless of  any  backdated element)  are not unknown,  in my own, private sector, current role the pay rise for  none managerial staff in our Business  Unit  ( several thousand people across  half a dozen sites) was agreed at the end of September, backdated to August  and  initially communicated that it would be paid (with arrears) in November, fortunately  HR / Payroll /IT managed to get everyone updated in time for it to be paid in October.

As other answers have pointed out  Legal action  even if only  threatended will not result in  any  faster  settlement than the originally  proposed  time frame.  As a trade Union Representative  i'd be wanting  my  branch / regional team to be pushing for  an advance to be made avilable  for those who wished to take it up / across the board 

Nye56

The teachers pay rise did not go through parliament until 

• 3 November 2023, the Praying period ends in Parliament and this is the formal end of the process

Local authority maintained school would not be allowed to implement the rise before this date.  In November/December payroll will be processing staff moving up pay scales which could not be processed until the end of the appraisal period (31st October).  This is how they arrive at the January date.