HR Experts/lawyers re: change to pay scheme help please

[bubbakin]

DH employers hold annual salary reviews & often amend pay schemes as he is in a sales based role (management level). They revealed a new pay scheme about 2 months ago which was rubbish compared to existing one. It was not only extremely confusing (lots of different components to it) but also meant that DH would earn less for same work (hitting target). His Manager (who wasn't on board that decided new pay scheme) said it was terrible scheme & that he didn't think they were allowed to pay you less for the same or more work. So the pay scheme went back to the drawing board as so many complaints were received. However, today DH has received an email from HR stating first draft of the pay scheme has actually been approved & they are backdating it to start 1/3/15. Can they do this, as far as my DH was concerned during March he was working under 'old' pay scheme & as a result under the new scheme he will earn £3k less in March than he thought!! This seems wrong! Thank you

Anyone?? DH said he's OK with new scheme just not that they've backdated it by a month as he'll b so out of pocket! So question really is can they implement a new pay scheme & back date when it was actually put in place? Surely if implement new scheme it starts from month introduced/following month so staff know what working for!

It's potentially a breach of contract but not necessarily. It's not something any employment lawyer can give you advice on over MN. We would need to see the documentation including the contract, past schemes and the current scheme documentation.

He needs to take advice. It will cost him less than £3k so will be worth it.

Agree with prepper, this is not something anyone can advise on without seeing a lot of documentation.

Thank you for taking time to respond. He's going to have a word with MD tomorrow, regardless of whether they're allowed to do it he feels it's really demotivating after having spent 60-70hr weeks in March to hit what he believed was his target.

It is difficult to advise online but check his contract in regards to bonus/commissions, we have a Claus that states we can revoke bonus at management discretion at anytime.

Check with his HR though, I'd be concerned about the back dating and I think it could be argued as we have have to give notice for contract change and bonus is mentioned in the contract.

Excuse typos, I'm on the wine due to annual leave tomorrow