Breach of Contract?

[Sausagethief]

Good evening,

I would be enormously grateful if someone could shed some light.

I have recently started a job in a FE College in London. The post is term time only and the salary is £20,000 pro rata, but actual salary £17,000.

I signed my contract which explicitly stated my actual annual salary would be £17,000, paid monthly. On receipt of my first wage I found to my surprise that the college are paying me on an adjusted salary of £14,000 per annum because of the time of year I have started and the amount of holiday vs working weeks (started end of April, I will have 1 weeks half term and 4 weeks summer hols). They said I will start getting an annual salary of £17,000 come September when the new academic year starts.

Can they do this? Reduce an already pro rata'd wage? Under no circumstances was this explained to me. I was told I would receive an annual salary of £17,000. Annual not academic year. I asked them if on the anniversary of my year working there, ie: 365 day being at the end of April 2016, will I have earned what is stated in my contract and they said no. Surely this isn't right? Is it?

Many thanks for taking the time to read

You are not being paid for the 5 weeks holiday that you mentioned - the half term and the summer holidays. That is the difference between 85% and 70% of the FTE that you are quoting.

You would normally accrue holidays and it doesn't sound as if you have been there long enough to accrue enough to cover the break this academic year - you will for the next academic year, which is probably what they mean.

The pro-ratad rate is based on a full year, working days vs non-working days. Because you started part way through a year then the ratio of working to non-working is different. If you calculate the amount you'd be paid for each 'working' day in a full year then you should find it's the same as what you're being paid now. You'll be paid the full pro-ratad amount once you've worked the ful year (ie in April 2017)

Between 1st September 2015 and 31st August 2016 you will earn £17k.

Between 27th April and 1st September there are 18 calendar weeks of which you will work 13. For 13 weeks work you are entitled to 1.56 weeks of holiday so you should be paid for 14.56/52 of the full non-prorata salary between end and 1st September. 14.56/52 X £20k = £5600 -if you spread that £5600 evenly over 18 weeks it is equivalent to £16178 pa so less than the £17k you were expecting but more than the £14k they have calculated. I suspect their calculations are not taking into account the fact that you do actually have the right to some paid holiday!

To calculate another way, £20k pa for 46.4 weeks of work is the same weekly rate as £17k for 39.4 weeks of work that is £431 per week worked so you should be getting £5603 for end April to end August

If your calculations that your payslip for May indicates a pro rata salary of £14k mean that you got a gross salary of around £1167 for May, then being paid that over 4 months would total £4600 so I reckon you are being underpaid by about £1000.

However you shouldn't expect the full £17k to apply in the first few months when you start shortly before the long summer break!

They are all correct. You can't expect to be paid for 7 weeks of down time.