Company messed up salary- unsure what to do

[ThatLovingNavyLion]

Applied for a job which was a step up, seemed like a good company to work for and so on. Went through all the checks, DBS, references, gave my 5 weeks notice in my old job and got a start date. Had an offer letter, contract was given to me on day 2 of the job (today)
About an hour before I got it HR advised me of an 'error' that my salary was actually X amount lower than what was advertised on TES, but said 'oh but it's only about £15 a month less after tax'

I can live with that so I said ok no problem. Then I checked later and it's more like £140 a month less, which is a lot for me as I'm still living month-to-month and trying to build up savings.

However when they gave me the contract it demonstrated the same amount as what they originally displayed on TES. I signed it, I should've disputed it really. So was the 'new' pay actually correct or did they forget to update the contract? (They'd told me they'd put the revised pay on the contract)

I'm unsure whether to look for another job as I don't think it's good enough to reveal a new salary after I've started. I'm going to speak to ACAS, I know I've also maybe messed up here I just panicked on the spot.

@EnidSpyton had the nail smack on the head. Do what she posted.

Then talk to ACAS or your union if you're in one. You have a legal contract to be paid what you signed for. They can't reduce it because someone on their side was too lax to check the details in the paperwork & now wants to reduce what they've contractually stated they will pay you.

As someone in private sector, I too would never dream of resigning without a signed contract in hand. I always make sure there are 2 inked copies signed by both parties. I keep one and the employer gets one. I absolutely accept that other sectors may work differently, but a verbal contract can be a legally binding contract still.

In OPs case, the contract will be stood up on the advertised salary AND the fact she signed paperwork on it. Getting railroaded by some muppet trying to backtrack their departmental error does NOT constitute a new verbal contract.

And start looking for another post with an organisation that can distinguish its arse from its elbow OP!

Honestly, id look for another job. You can be honest, its not your fault. Just say they advertised a salary of x, put that in your contract, then announced they'd got it wrong and changed it to y. Say your confidence is them and trust has been badly breached .
Or just say the actual job isn't as advertised and you feel its time to cut your losses.

They are very much in the wrong, but id just get out ASAP whilst keeping your seat warm and not wrangling with hr. You can tackle them legally later but do check this all with ACAS.

All the best to you

The contract had rhe same salary as the job advert....

Isn't it the Times Educational Supplement?

Well, yes. Hence jobs related to education... My apologies if it has others as well.

What a bitchy comment. Is your life so sad you need to hit out at others?

Employment contracts are legally binding on the parties to it just as any other contract ie mortgage contract etc.

Employer made a mistake. Tough on them especially you will tell them this is misrepresentation leading you to accept the job which you wouldn’t have done at the lower salary.

Your union must make sure guarantees are given by your employer against any constructive dismissal and meanwhile start looking for another job at your higher salary.

Next time in the interview ask questions about proposed salary.

Of course you are entitled to what you signed a contract for and what was advertised.

I am just checking-is the issue that your takehome is lower than expected or the base salary?

I can't see your response in thread, but check your quoted salary isn't quoted pro rata, and dedications are reasonable (student loans are notoriously overcharged but you will also be paying pension etc.)

I would also check tax codes are correct (you may be being charged as if this were a second job if your resignation hasn't worked through).

And good luck in your new post

Is your life so sad you can't enjoy humour? Anyway there are more people agreeing with me (albeit secretly) than there are snowflakes saying" oh my God how dare you criticise anyone".

Really not! The OP did nothing wrong, has been handed a barrel of excuses & hasn't had a paycheck yet.

It's not even clear what she was told, or 'checked' the £15 vs £140 against.

So no, "most" people aren't secretly agreeing with you, they are wondering what you have to contribute to OPs actual predicament other than being a complete bitch to her.

HTH.

But you have not answered re the terms. How would you start in a role not knowing/understanding the terms of the contract? By starting the job, you are essentially agreeing to terms you know nothing about. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you are wrong, I’m just finding it baffling.

I understand that some contracts have standard terms you won’t be able to negotiate (have had that with our NHS equivalent, public service) but others do. Irrespective, it seems common sense to understand what you are agreeing to before agreeing🤷‍♀️. My kids give me their contracts to review and go through before signing to accept any job. ETA - The most recent one (for a huge 😲multi-national) they negotiated the standard notice period for their position down from 6 to 3 months, and had the timeframe for a non-compete clause altered. If they had of been merrily sitting on a seat working before receiving the contract, their bargaining ability would have been zero. Similarly, many people with wfh ability have now clued that contract detail is key and instead of accepting the usual wishy washy clauses are negotiating having minimum 2/3 days wfh and remainder in company location as directed etc, to avoid getting burnt with verbal promises and then 12mths later a 5 days wfh return to office mandate.

Why would you press agree when you don't?

There isn’t a “disagree” button. You can only see those who agree. Not exactly getting the whole picture.

I have no solution as I have no experience of the education sector, but like others, I find it utterly baffling that anyone would accept and start a job without having seen and signed the contract. If teaching contracts and T&Cs are standardised, then it cannot be impossible to produce a standard contract (or refer to these standard T&Cs) already at interview stage. As far as I know, this is how many other public sector organisations operate.

It may be that the OP's employer has actually follwed this process - there seems to be alignment between the job advertisement, the offer letter and the contract - and that there has been an administrative error somewhere along the line. These things happen, but the solution cannot be to the disadvantage of the employee, who has applied for and accepted a position (and resigned from their original job) in good faith and in expectation of being paid the advertised and agreed salary.

Wanted to bump the good advice here. They verbally informed you that the salary might be a bit different and then presented you with a contract for the original figure, which you’ve now signed.

Something formal will now need to happen if they want to vary it e.g. asking you to agree in writing to a different salary. You can see what they say, and if there’s any mention of you verbally agreeing to something then you can respond that a) you should not have been put in that position and b) you were informed that the difference was £15pcm.

Please don’t beat yourself up about agreeing in the moment or not checking things. It’s reasonable to expect that advertised pay will be correct, and that contracts will be correct. This is their mess up, not yours.

Unfortunately this is commonplace in education. It's not unusual to not receive an actual contract until well after you've started a job. Late contracts are so normalised, it's not seen as a concern because we do, by and large, know what the contract is going to say due to T&Cs being pretty much standardised across (state) schools. It's really the offer letter that counts - this is your guarantee that the job is yours, and this outlines the salary and working hours. You can push back and negotiate at that stage if you're not happy, and then whatever you've signed in your offer letter will go into your contract.

In private schools, however, T&Cs can vary enormously between schools and I've certainly been caught out in the past when realising, on receipt of my contract after starting the job (as per the norm as described above), that I was expected to work x 4 Saturdays per year, which was not mentioned to me at interview and nor was it in my offer letter. This I did successfully push back on because I had started the job with no way of knowing this was expected of me. Unfortunately many colleagues had signed their contracts without even reading them properly so they were astonished when I pointed it out and much aggrieved - but once they'd signed, there was nothing they could do. That experience taught me to always read the contract!!

I think part of the issue with school recruitment is that most of it, outside of temporary/maternity contracts, takes place in March/April due to the fixed deadlines by which we all have to resign, and so you've got schools trying to recruit for 10+ posts at the same time with a very tight turnaround, and admin becoming totally overwhelmed as a consequence. As I mentioned in my previous post, in my experience, a lot of state schools in particular don't have trained HR people and a lot of the recruitment admin is carried out by the Head's PA or someone else in the office as opposed to someone who actually understands how employment law works. HR is the Wild West in a lot of schools and that's why we're all so reliant on the union to sort issues out that should really be an HR department's responsibility.