Using work phone whilst on maternity leave

[LCRLCR]

Hi I work for a very large company and all employees have work phones which are used very casually, for both personal and business use and management has never commented on this so I just followed the culture and did same. However I have been on maternity leave since last August and have continued to use my work mobile phone as normal - both to check in on work emails but also for non-business use. I understood that while on maternity leave, I got to keep normal employment rights and benefits (excluding wages) and that this might include any access to benefits eg company car or mobile phone (from direct gov website). My employer did not ask me to suspend use of the phone.

However yesterday I was very embarrassed to receive a stern email from my line manager querying my use of the phone. I feel naive and a bit daft that I continued to use the phone even though I wasn't at work - in retrospect I think shouldn't have but as I say, I wasn't asked to surrender it. I've offered to pay the bill and am waiting for a reply back from my manager. Was I in the wrong to use the phone and was I naive to perceive it as a "free perk"? I'm due back at work in July and feel embarrassed. Did you have to surrender phones whilst on mat leave and is it enough to offer the pay the bill or will I be disciplined?

If you have a company phone they you should keep it. Do they have a policy on personal use.

It depends how much the personal use was, I suppose it could be no more than your normal use but as you're not at work they can "see" it more clearly.

I used mine right through and they never queried it. Phew.

Can't believe that your employer would get difficult if you paid the bill tho ... totally reasonable of you.

Yes you were in the wrong and naive!

What I mean is if you are issued with a work phone, it's for work purposes, not a perk unless clearly stated.

I have a work phone. The policy says that we are allowed to use it for "occasional personal calls" but these should be kept to a minimum.
Obviously, that's open to interpretation but I would say anything more than a call a month probably exceeds that, unless you are using up an existing allowance of pre-paid call time. I have my own phone for personal use, as I wouldn't expect my employer to cover the cost of my personal calls. How much have you actually been using it?

I'd have thought that an apology and an offer to pay the bill would be sufficient in these circumstances. And chalk it down to experience.

I think standard practice is that if you are allowed some personal use of a phone while you are at work this should carry on during maternity leave. Same with any benefit - like a company car that was used for personal travel (though I don't suppose you would expect them to pay petrol).

I reckon you should ask them to clarify company phone use policy at the same time as offering to pay the bill.

We have to pay the bill for our personal calls, usually quarterly. I continued to use mine on maternity leave and paid the annual bill when I got back. This is in line with our policy of personal use of work phones.

If it's provided for business use only then you are not entitled to keep it. If it's provided for business and personal use, then you are.

How much use are we talking though? I have a work mobile and the only occasions I can think of where I might use it for personal calls is when I am out and about during working hours (therefore have work phone with me), need to make a personal call and have either left my own phone at home or it has run out of juice. So practically never, really.

What does the policy say about personal calls? 'Occasional' like magicmummy's is common.

Thanks for your replies - i have never seen a policy pertaining to use of work phones so I am not sure. even though I've had the phone for 6 years now.

Now that this has all happened, I see that I have been taking the p*ss really by continuing to use it but not actually being at work. My manager has not yet replied to my email of apology / offer to pay the bill and I have immediately stopped using the phone (it's an iphone so more than anything I use it to browse the internet, mumsnet (!) etc) but I guess my usage for the rest of April has still to come in

LCRLCR - I guess that the problem is that a mobile phone is a potentially taxable perk. While the company can claim that mobiles are used for business use and that personal use is quite minor then the taxman possibly isnt interested. Your use while on maternity leave was obviously almost all personal and therefore taxable. It is possible that right now someone in the tax department is having panic attacks about the thought of a PAYE audit finding this.

TBH your company should have already recognised this risk but obviously someone has messed up along the way hence the panicky email. If there is no policy (or you have never been made aware of one) then this shouldnt become disciplinary.

It's a long time since I did tax (so long ago that mobiles were taxable when I did my exams as they were a kind of luxury perk not something everyone had), but they aren't taxable any more under normal circumstances so unless there is some complicated ML aspect to them I don't think you need to be worrying about tax implications as they aren't classed as a Benefit in Kind.

The op has an iPhone. If I'm not mistaken, smartphones ARE taxable because they can function as computers - or something like that!

Disclaimer: I don't work in payroll & know nothing about tax! :)

Ah - yes - I'd missed that bit (it's that lack of attention to detail that made me so crap at tax ).

This is the relevant HMRC guidance for iPhones I think but I'm not too hot on this area. It's possible that if the ML use has increased then the 'running costs' have increased but the guidance doesn't seem to differentiate between personal and business use... again this isn't really my area of specialism though - hopefully a proper payroll/tax person will be along.

OP - I think all you can do now is stop browsing and wait to see what they say. It does sound like they've been a bit crap regarding policy and guidance so hopefully your apologising and offering to repay will sort it out.

When I did my exams mobile phones didnt exist except in the realms of James Bond!

I dont think that there is any risk of the OP having a tax bill to pay. Someone is probably worrying and the worry has been communicated to the line manager.

Our work phone 'policy' (it's a vague agreement, tbh) is that it's ok to make personal calls in the normal working week, because it's reasonable to need to contact someone in our personal life occasionally whilst working, without carrying 2 phones.

We don't use work mobiles on a weekend or during holidays usually, because at those times, work isn't interferring with us keeping in touch with family needs etc.

As I said, it's not a policy as such, and maternity leave isn't holiday obviously, but I can sort of see the employer's point of view in that while on maternity leave being at work isn't hindering your access to family contact etc.

I hope they don't make a big thing of it though; it's not like mobile calls and data are really expensive on most business contracts these days.

Our policy (NHS trust) seems like its a lot more draconian than most then. Any personal use of my work mobile at all is regarded as theft. I have to carry two about in case I need to contact anyone like dh or CM. I once called the RAC on my work mobile because my car broke down in the middle of nowhere and my personal phone had a flat battery (this was in working hours whilst travelling for work) and I got a telling off and the money deducted from my wages!