SSP being divided by 7 days a week

bemc

Hi all,

For context: I work for a company that outsources customer services to retailers and insurers. We receive an individual contract based on the retailer/insurer client we work for, with specified working days.

Many of us of us are on contracts that specify Mon-Fri with 1 in 4 Saturdays. The retailer is closed on Sundays, so nobody on this contract can work 7 days a week.

We have received an email to say that the SSP will now be divided by 7 days a week and the daily rate will be £16.97 per day.

They say that as SOME employees work 7 days a week, they are able to use that calculation for everybody.

Is this legal if we're on a contract where we are unable to work 7 days a week as the client we work for is closed one day a week?


This is the email chain:

To HR: "Thanks for your email. Could you confirm that for those of us contracted to work 5 or 6 days a week, we will still be paid a daily rate of £23.75/£19.79? **Client account** is closed on Sundays, so there is no opportunity for me to work 7 days a week."

From HR: "Just wanted to add some further clarity to this. When we say that hourly colleagues work across 7 days of the week, this doesn’t mean they work all 7 days. It means they can be scheduled on any of the 7 days in a week. For example, a colleague may work 5 days per week, but those days can vary from week to week – sometimes including weekends and sometimes not. This is important because Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is calculated based on qualifying days. **Employer** operates as a 7-day-a-week business, even though some accounts/clients may not currently be open every day. Therefore, all hourly employees will follow the business standard of 7 qualifying days.

Would love to get some thoughts on this. I believe they are using this section from the gov.uk website to justify it:

"You must agree which days will be qualifying days with your employee. If you and your employee cannot agree the qualifying days use one of the following:

-The days which you and your employee agree that they are required to work under their contract
-A Wednesday, if there is no named day of work
-Every day of the week except those when none of the workforce are required to work"

It seems highly unfair (illegal?) to say a worker only contracted for 6 days a week (and physically unable to work 7 days as their particular side of the business is not open on the 7th day) will have their SSP divided into 7 days, and therefore will receive a much lower daily rate. This will be even more pertinent come April, when SSP becomes eligible from day 1 of sickness.

Caz3121

have you actually confirmed what would be paid if, for example you were contracted for 5 days and were absent for 2 weeks and entitled to SSP?

Would you be paid £16.97 x 10 working days or £16.97 x 14 absence days?

itsthelittlethings

That does seem wrong. Are any of you in a union?

bemc

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81870053#Comment_81870053

For your example I believe it would just be 2 x the weekly rate (£118.75). The problem (come April, when SSP is due from day 1) will be if an employee is contracted for 5 days and is off sick for 3 days but is being paid 3 x £16.97 rather than 3 x £23.75.

itsthelittlethings

It’s completely ridiculous, if you’re contracted 5/7 days why are you being paid as though you work 7/7 days? In addition if you are working even 6/7 days presumably some of that is overtime?

itsthelittlethings

I would definitely push back on this. Someone is trying to take you for a ride.

sheramber

If there's a problem with statutory sick pay

Contact HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) statutory payment dispute team if you think your employer has:

• not paid you statutory sick pay when you're eligible
• paid you the wrong amount of statutory sick pay

https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-sick-pay/statutory-sick-pay-ssp

Savvy_Sue

Also just checking, does the employer pay ONLY SSP when you are sick? I ask because if Company Sick Pay makes it up to full pay (at least initially), then it doesn't immediately matter how SSP is calculated.

If it is just SSP, then Union, definitely. Please don't say you don't have one, everyone is entitled to join one and if you find the employer is taking advantage of you then having several of you join and raise the issue together may be sensible.

https://www.tuc.org.uk/join-a-union

bemc

Not a member of a union unfortunately - I believed they can only help with an issue that arises after your joining date - is that still the case?

No sick pay aside from SSP.

HR have confirmed:

If you are off the equivalent of a full week (ie Mon-Fri and then back the next Monday) you will receive a full weeks SSP (£118.75 currently) because the absence record would reflect the first day of absence up to the day before you returned to work.
If you were only off 1, 2, 3 or 4 days then the daily rate of £16.96 would apply (the unpaid waiting days will still apply until the new government legislation comes in)

So basically, anything under a week they are still dividing by 7, even though me and many other colleagues are physically unable to work 7 days a week because our department is closed one of the days. I despair!

itsthelittlethings

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81870567#Comment_81870567

If you work more than 5 days are you paid overtime? If so they should still pay you the usual rate. When you’re sick you get SSP for normal hours not including overtime. Do you work 8 hour days?

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81870567#Comment_81870567

Union: it depends. No, they may not immediately provide representation, but they may offer advice. And if this is the way your employer treats you, what about the next issue?

Plus, if several of you join, or are already members, you are harder to ignore. And I always feel there's safety in numbers.