AIBU - legally can they actually do this!?

[BMWL]

I work for quite a large private company.
I am contracted for 34.5 hours a week.
During this pandemic, I have been working, but have been working reduced hours - average 25-30 hours a week. But have been getting my full pay as normal.

They have now said that any hours that have not been worked by staff, will have to be paid back to the company, or employees can have their annual leave entitlements taken from them to get rid of these hours that are owed to the company.

I feel like this is a bit of a crappy thing to do, I would have preferred to been paid for the hours I've worked, than now absolutely killing my self for the rest of the year trying to work over time to make up these hours.

To put things in perspective, some employees owe 180 hours

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated

[Bluntness100]

I also suspect they want you all to do a mix of reducing the annual holiday option and working extra to cover others vacation. A lot of companies are concerned that we are nearly six months into the year and limited to no holiday has been taken by folks. And if they all try to take it in the latter six months it will cause an operational problem.


However they have handled this badly . I’m guessing they simply didn’t think it through earlier and have now realised that folks are coming back and have maybe up to five weeks of holiday still to take. So they need to reduce that entitlement, to reduce the impact and then have the other staff work extra hours to cover them.

Hence why they want a mix, reduce the vacations people will take so reduce the overall impact and then up the hours people will work at other times to cover the vacations.

[Xenia]

As far as I know you cannot do stuff retrospectively - that is the big issue. You can ask people to take a pay cut and if they agree that's fine. However you cannot con them into having a slightly easier work day and a few weeks later say ha ha ha - we were joking -and in fact going right back to that time you don't get full pay after all. That is not how contract or employment law works. So it will all depend on what was said at the time the hours but not the pay were reduced. People in offices often have much quieter weeks and still get their full pay.

[Qgardens]

How was three reduced hours communicated?

[Judiwench]

I was told I couldnt work reduced hours for more than 4 weeks before it becoming an issue with employment rights. So it seems unlikely they can retrospectively take your cash/holidays.

[2Finallypregnant]

Tbf, Trump had a problem when they kneeled peacefully in protest to what was happening. Either way, he is a massive racist.

[AlwaysCheddar]

Why are you working less hours?