Flexible working - change to core hours

[MollieO]

Hopefully a question one of the MN HR gurus can answer.

My department core hours are being reduced by 2.5 hours from January from 37.5 to 35. Full time salaries remain the same so effectively a payrise for those who work full time.

I work 33.5 hours and have my salary pro-rated to reflect the fact that I work 4 hours less than the current core hours. However from January the change in core hours means I will only be working 1.5 hours less than the new core hours and therefore should have a salary adjustment (ie recover 2.5 hours pay per week). HR have told me I'm not entitled to this. Where do I stand legally and what should I do?

As a part timer you should not be disadvantaged so if there are people doing the same job as you for £X per hour and you are doing it for £Y per hour which is less, then you are being disadvantaged. Use the hourly rate point of view to make your case to HR.

Thx Flowery. I emailed HR and they said that my salary will stay the same even though I won't benefit from the reduced core hours. I've got a meeting with head of HR tomorrow to discuss it.

I think the key is to steer away from the change in hours per se.

Bottom line is if someone is paid (for example) £25,000 for 35 hours then someone doing 33.5 hours at the same job should be paid £25,000/35x33.5= £23,929. Instead they are paying you £25,000/37.5x33.5= £22,333.

The hourly rate for the job is now £13.73, not £12,82.

How or why the full time person has ended up being paid £25,000 for 35 hours isn't relevant.

Difficult to do an hourly comparison as I don't know what anyone else is paid and the job I do isn't an hourly rate kind of job.

The other way I thought I could say is that I do 4 hours less than the core hours so all I need to make sure is the differential continues. If that isn't possible then I expect to be remunerated for the extra 2.5 hrs.

My line manager asked me whether I would think about changing my hours to accommodate the 2.5 hr difference (ie work 2.5 hrs less). I would be so long as it didn't affect my holiday entitlement (hasn't so far). However it was an off the cuff remark and he has made it clear he doesn't want to be involved in any decision.

Think carefully about reducing your hours, are you sure you wouldn't rather have the extra pay? After all you already have a contract for your 33.5 hours, so they will have to increase your pay so that it is still pro-rata. In the current austerity situation it can be quite hard to get employers to increase hours once they are less than full time & remember it would also impact on redundancy payouts etc. were the worse to happen.