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

Yes a small company which I helped found 10 years ago. I've been incredibly positive since coming back and have not signed a contract or had any sort of meeting about this, official or otherwise. I even took my daughter into the office on my day off this week and ended up doing some work!

I'll call ACAS on Monday as am so upset about this that at the moment I don't even know if I can bear working there anymore. My boss told me last night they will reimburse and I know he'll try fight my corner - I'm already on 60% of my pay anyway due to reduced hours but have been pretty much working every day (very possible to WFH here) anyway.

If this is maternity discrimination and you want to go down the employment tribunal route you need to make sure you're going to acas reconciliation within the right time frame which I think is 3 months less a day from when the discrimination happened..some employers drag out resolving these things because they know that after that point there is nothing employee's can do. I think that applies to anything you want to go to the employment tribunal for, ie if you went down the constructive dismissal route. Deffo speak to acas and clarify and get a grievance in.

The grievance is the key bit.

I hope it gets sorted. I am feeling your pain. I've done 20 years and have spent the last 4 months of my maternity leave trying to get back into the company part time. Was told that the person making decisions sees me as just a number. I proposed 27 hours , rejected, not possible to do my job part time apparently although it's only less one day.. so in limbo now and if nothing available I just leave.

Why are you working every day despite reducing your hours? Surely that's just bloody stupid?

@homeworkery I guess I'm just invested in the company! But that's why I proposed an extra work day.

I hope you can get some answers tomorrow, it sounds terrible

Thanks for so much support everyone. I've told my boss I'm not going in tomorrow and he said he understands. Apparently he's emailed the partner group saying they've made a mistake and I need to be reimbursed and paid at my proper salary, and to consider my proposal of a four day week in the constructive mindset that I offered it.

As if going back to work after your first baby isn't shit enough. I've got more and more pissed off as the weekend has gone on to be honest. Don't know how I'm supposed to swan in there pretending everything is fine. Worst thing is, a colleague is getting married next weekend and so I am spending the weekend with the two co-founding partners! There are four of us, plus partners, who have been invited and one is my boss and sadly another is the co-founder (not my boss) who is clearly the driver behind the pay cut 😡

'I've told my boss I'm not going in tomorrow '

My advice would be to seek to resolve matters professionally ie through dialogue and if necessary a grievance and/ or ET claim if that doesn't work.

By refusing to work (unless you are off sick, on annual leave or away for some other legitimate reason) you risk giving the business reason to take action against you.

” By refusing to work (unless you are off sick, on annual leave or away for some other legitimate reason) you risk giving the business reason to take action against you.”

Yes this. By acting unreasonably yourself, you are detracting from the seriousness of what they’ve done and risk turning it into mud slinging rather than squeaky clean has-never-done-anything-wrong employee vs unreasonable big bad employer.

Thanks for latest comments, I've been working from home not just 'not going in' but see that wasn't clear!

Sought legal advice this morning then had a call with my manager and he's clearly very upset by all this (honestly, as it was not his decision, but as he admits he had not fought hard enough).

They have reimbursed me and reinstated my salary but to be honest I'm more outraged as time goes on that four grown adults in leadership positions sat around a table and decided this was okay. Boss is now willing to jump through hoops so in the case of constructive dismissal, which which this feels like, I have asked what redundancy will be.

My uncle was recently paralysed and I've experienced a lot of loss in my family, and to be honest since having my daughter I value time more than anything, why on earth waste it working for a company that clearly doesn't value me at all?

*which is what

Sorry they did this. That's so awful. I would expect at least a year's salary in redundancy pay if I had worked somewhere for 10 years.

OP sounds like they have behaved like shit bags. But don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If the job fits with childcare etc and your salary is OK it might be worth sticking with. Especially as you know the job very well. Be far more strict with your hours stop doing extra.

The baby years are short, at 3 you'll get nursery funding and childcare costs go down. It's easier to get a new job if you're already employed. How are the promotion prospects where you are?