Back from mat leave and been blindsided with pay cut

[thisusernameismine]

Surely this cannot be allowed? I had a year mat leave and been back a few weeks, prorated as now on 3 days a week vs full time.

I've just found out - by way of my salary going into my bank, not even seen my pay cheque yet - that I'm now being paid £8k less than what I was on when I left to have a baby and then prorated on that?! This means after childcare we pretty much break even, so why the fuck would I even bother with work?

I work as an executive assistant and am pretty much on call 24/7 anyway. I proposed last week to increase my days to 4 (over two half days) as realised I didn't want to be handing work over all the time and I could stay more plugged into the company (I'm part of the founding team ffs), plus the bonus of earning more without needing childcare.

Feel like I've been utterly blindsided. My boss (just been on the phone to him for an hour after I logged into my bank) had mentioned (in an off the cuff sort of way) that the other founding partner was thinking I couldn't do my job to its full capacity in just 3 days so might be salary reviewed - no way did I feel this was a real threat as surely they'd have to sit you down for a proper consultation if they were considering something as serious as cutting a chunk out of your salary??

Employment law advice very much appreciated x

Forgot to add that I've been back on payroll since 1 August (using accrued leave) and my first two pay cheques were as expected. But this month taking home £260 less!

So they’ve reduced your salary by £8k and then pro rata that for your PT pay?!

I wouldn’t have thought that was legal at all. I’d be contacting ACAS.

Phone ACAS. You'll get the correct advice from them but that doesn't sound legal.

Thank you for replying. Will definitely call ACAS - they're open on Monday (when I'm supposed to swan into work with a fake smile!). Still fuming xx

I’m a bit unclear, are you assuming your salary has been cut, or has your boss confirmed it?

I would first winder if this was a mistake and would ring payroll.

Talk to them first surely?? Could be a genuine error?

Agree that you need to speak to your manager and payroll to see what has happened before you go in all guns blazing.

Sorry if I've read this wrong but did you expect to be on full time pay for part time hours?

Sorry read again! Pro rata on 8k less. Crazy! It must be a mistake, is 8k less your new annual pay? And payroll may not have realised and pro rata again. Probably an error.

Doesn't sound right at all

Of course you can’t do your full job in three days, that’s why you’re expecting to be paid three fifths of your usual salad! That’s shocking if true. I would check your pay slip first in case it is a tax issue.

I'd speak to HR. It couldn't be something to do with pension could it? I had a bit taken off my new pay check when I came back from maternity as they took all the pension from my unpaid maternity leave.

You have the right to your old job back on the same T&C's, unless you've been made redundant from that post and deployed to another, which it doesn't seem so.

You can claim unfair dismissal because you've gone back on worse conditions (salary) than what you started with.

This is not right OP, if you don't have a HR department, I would contact ACAS.

This sounds incredibly wrong. Is it a tiny company that's making stuff up as it goes along with no HR or legal knowledge

Are you sure when you went to 3 days that they didn’t enroll you in a different job - so effectively you gave up your full time post and agreed to another?

The pro rata ing takes into account the reduced hours no need to reduce the salary as well - sounds like a mths incompetent to me

maths

You have the right to your old job back on the same T&C's, unless you've been made redundant from that post and deployed to another, which it doesn't seem so.

That’s not actually true if you take a whole year of maternity leave. Your job can be changed but it would have to be seen as equivalent.

But you don’t have the right to work 3 days

Only if agreed which is what could have happened here

Op in effect gave up the full time role for a. Different 3 day role

I mean that may be what happened and they just didn’t explain it to her which is crazy but more likely

When they said your job couldn’t be done in 3 days what they may have meant was that they could give u 3 days but it’s be a diff role? They don’t have to offer you 3 days in your current job

Sounds obvious but have a word with HR/payroll to make sure that somebody hasn't done the maths wrong, or that they haven't been instructed to reduce your salary twice (3 days so 66% pay, then 66% of that again so down to about 45% of your full-time equivalent).

Are you sure it's not just that your tax code is wrong? I wouldn't assume that what payroll have paid you is your new salary, anything could have reduced it, tax, pension contributions, holiday, mistakes!

It's definitely been cut. They decided as a partner group (of 4) that I couldn't possibly do my job to its full potential on three days. And to think I'd decided before I knew this that I wanted to work more for the company! I've been here 10 years. My boss is amazing but the other co founder just seems to pluck rules out the air. It's utterly bizarre.