Can someone help re: payrise / new contract issues please?

[WiiUnfit]

Hi all,

I really need some help with this if possible! I'm sorry it's so confusing!

My company recently underwent a reorganisation where I was awarded a permenant part time role. This meant I was employed under a new role but, as my contract states, my year of work in the previous role before the new contract will be classed as continuous employment, meaning I would still be eligible for full sick pay, Maternity pay .etc. Part of this new contract involved a pay rise of £1185 per annum, to bring my salary in line with others in the same role.

My contract started in April, details of my new pay were not passed onto payroll who subsequently paid me my old salary for April. I queried this and was told the Office Mgr had instructured payroll to pay me the rest of what was owed to me for April. I was under the impression this would be asap, anyway, it wasn't paid in the meantime so I assumed it would be sorted for the next payroll. I've received my payslip for May in the post today (now on Maternity Leave) and it doesn't look like they've paid me what they've owed me? Actually, it's less than what I should have been paid for May? What can I do about this? :(

The other thing is, my contract and staff handbook tell me that Maternity Pay is 90% of my salary for the first 6 weeks, so why have I been paid less than half of what would work out as my daily pay for the bank holiday at the end of May (first day of Mat Leave)?

I'd be really grateful if someone could please help me with this. It's causing me no end of stress!

With regard to your statutory maternity pay your salary will be 90% of the amount you earned during a specific period:
To calculate your average weekly earnings your employer will average your gross earnings over a period of at least eight weeks up to and including the last payday before the end of your qualifying week. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week your baby is due. This period may vary depending on how often you are paid ? weekly, monthly or other intervals.

Therefore what you would have earned on a specific shift after this is immaterial to the calculation.

With regard to the under payment of your April salary I think you should just chase payroll for the money as you would if you were underpaid whilst not on maternity leave.

If the salary you were paid in April should have been used in the calculation of your SMP your SMP will be underpaid as you were underpaid in that month. However I expect it probably wasn't unless you have taken extremely early maternity leave.

So, even though I'm paid more now than I was during my 15th week before EWC, my SMP will be based on my old wages? :(

Argh, this is giving me such a headache!!!

No that's not right. Although there is an 8 week period used for calculating SMP, there is a legal case called Alabaster which makes an exception where there is a payrise subsequently, and SMP must be recalculated, see here.