If a work contract says that you will be paid at your manager's discretion, can they just universally not pay you?

[PayQuery]

I've namechanged for this

We have always been paid sick pay but the Company was sold last year and now it seems that some people are being paid and some aren't

Not that I plan on being ill of course (7 sick days to date in 13 years)

Thread title should of course have said paid sick pay not just paid...

You're entitled to statutory sick pay, which pays nothing for the first 3 days of any absence then £78.60 per week from the 4th day for up to 28 weeks.

Employers can pay more than statutory sick pay (SSP), but don't have to. Lots of employers state that any company pay (ie. anything paid in excess of SSP) is discretionary. However, employers do need to be careful about how they use their discretion so that they don't discriminate on the grounds of sex, race,
disability etc.

Does your contract of employment or terms & conditions say anything about what the company policy on sick pay is? If it states in your T&Cs what the conditions are re. company sick pay, I'd expect that condition of employment to have transferred to the new owner of the company (if you transferred under TUPE).

Thanks for your reply

There isn't a sick pay policy as such, contracts just say that sick pay will be paid at your manager's discretion, which I think is where we're going to come unstuck because I'm sure if they said we will be paid they would have to do it - like you said because of TUPE regulations

It's just bloody annoying because arse lickers some people are being paid and others aren't. I guess the rest of us will just have to hope we're not ill but unfortunately that's too late for a good friend of mine who is currently off due to an accident (not at work) and isn't being paid despite the fact that this is the first time she's had off sick in nearly 30 years - yes 30 years

Gits...

Well, discretion is fine as part of your terms and conditions, however if everyone has always been paid without that discretion having been exercised, there is certainly an argument that there is some entitlement to sick pay as part of your terms and conditions established through custom and practice. Although proving that would be nearly impossible I imagine, especially as the transfer was last year. This is the type of thing that unions or employee representatives consulted as part of a transfer ought to have been on top of tbh.

Even if your contract states that sick pay is at managers discretion, I think your friend should query why he/she is not getting sick pay and others are.

Yes flowery I think proving anything is going to be very difficult. No-one was consulted about the transfer, we were just told we had been sold and to whom. There are no unions in our Company, never has been

Snowgirl I agree she should query it, but I suspect she won't...

Thanks again both of you

You can always belong to a union, who can give you legal advice and so on, even if there isn't a recognised union in your workplace.

It sounds discriminatory to me, that some people get paid sick pay and others don't.