Can they really do this? Or do I have a case?

[BMWL]

I work for quite a large private company.
I am contracted for 34.5 hours a week.
During this pandemic, I have been working, but have been working reduced hours - average 25-30 hours a week. But have been getting my full pay as normal.

They have now said that any hours that have not been worked by staff, will have to be paid back to the company, or employees can have their annual leave entitlements taken from them to get rid of these hours that are owed to the company.

I feel like this is a bit of a crappy thing to do, I would have preferred to been paid for the hours I've worked, than now absolutely killing my self for the rest of the year trying to work over time to make up these hours.

To put things in perspective, some employees owe 180 hours

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated

Was there a reason why you worked less hours? Who agreed this ahead of you doing it?

Do you have anything in writing?

Could you offer to pay the 'over payment' back?

Is this a duplicate thread?

What was agreed when you worked less than full time hours for full time pay?

Your best bet is to use any annual leave you can to cover the shortfall (it's not like we'll be off on holiday soon) and not worry about other people.

Sorry this is a duplicate thread, I didn't know if the post has gone through and now I don't know how to delete it. The other post is in AIBU thread.

Thank you for your replies! I have a plan in place for Monday

I think it's fair to be honest. You're contracted to complete a certain number of hours and haven't been doing so, you therefore need to somehow make up these hours and they've given you different options of how to do so. 180 hours is 22.5 full work days, you can't expect the company to pay for these hours of work but nothing be done in them, it will be costing them money.

The only thing I think they should do is give you the option to 'pay back' what you have been paid for the hours you haven't worked, therefore the company isn't losing the money as they can pay someone else to work these hours.

However I think their overall point on the matter is very reasonable. If you missed hour of work for any other reasons like appointments or picking up kids early you'd be expected to make up the hours or take them as leave (unpaid or AL), this is no different.

I don't think this is right at all.

When they closed the office, did they advise you via email? Did they mention anything about workloads?
What's the reason behind you working less hours?