Shafted at work

[moonface19]

Think I posted this on the incorrect board previously so I hope I'm allowed to repost it here?

PLEASE bear with, its a bit of a tale but would HUGELY appreciate any opinions...

Commenced role March 2019 as MD, salary, car allowance and 10% pension, 6 months notice either side.

1st things wrong is notice someone has gone back to the signed contract held on file and put a line through the 10% (of basic) pension contribution and written 5% ee and 5% er - that wasn't the agreement it was 10% er.
Covid hit and in April and March 2020 received what equated to 50% of salary only. Worked both those months.
Then told in June/July 2020 being put on 6 months notice of redundancy. This meant that notice would run out just before the 2 years service was approaching and out of work on 17th Dec 2020. Then had meeting with owner who said he would take redundancy off the table if accepted a 50% pay cut and drop to one months notice instead of 6 months. Took it as had no other option in middle of a pandemic. Totally taken advantage of by the owner but grateful to be in a job.
To cut to the chase - if I leave, what's the view on a) forcing them to honour the 10% pension on full salary as contracted. Is this a breach of contract?
b) getting them to pay in full for months worked when 'furloughed'?
c) now there is more than 2 years service, going for breach of contract/constructive dismissal?
Very interested to hear from anyone on this one!
Massive thanks in advance

Well, crossing something out with a pen and changing it isn’t enough to change the terms of a contract so yes I would hold them to the 10%.

The rest is a bit confusing. April and May last year your pay was cut by half- was this without your agreement? What did you do at the time? You’re too late to bring an unlawful deduction claim as it was a year ago but breach of contract might be an option. You’d need to leave employment though.

Then at some undisclosed point after July, you agreed to a 50% pay cut and reduction in your notice period? So there’s no breach there.

What would be the basis of constructive dismissal, has something else happened now?

When was the furlough and was that agreed? Was it 80% (capped at £2500 pcm) or something else?

ahhh @Flowery, thank you, I was hoping you would reply..

Agree re the pension.

Sorry I've made it unclear - April and May last year was when I was 'furloughed' but I worked throughout (and have plenty of email traffic and call logs that would show that) and the owner said he would amend this. When I raised the issue he just kept kicking it down the road.. so he has effectively illegally claimed furlough for me for those two months.

In June 2020 I was given notice of termination and told my role may cease in 6 months (as I was on 6 months notice and I was required to work it). It was his way of not paying me 6 months notice if he made me redundant there and then. Throughout he was saying - it won't come to you actually leaving but you'll understand I have to put you on notice just in case.
A couple of days before what would have been my termination date, he called a meeting and said he wanted me to stay in the role but said the role was exactly the same but at 50% the salary and I would only be on one months notice.
The owner always hated the six months notice but for MD level it is standard. So he successfully cut the salary and notice to one month - a significant saving for him if he tries to make me redundant now that I have two years service.
Does that make it a bit clearer??

In general if your employer breaches your employment contract, you can claim compensation, even if you’ve been employed under two years.

I'm unclear though about what exactly has happened.

Did you receive 10% matched pension contributions throughout the 2019/20 tax year?
Can you see the 5% reduction take effect then in 2020/21?

Custom and practice will trump contract terms if both parties proceed as though these are the deemed terms. So if your er and ee have been paid over at the lower % for some time a tribunal may deem you to have accepted it.

When you say you worked April & May 2020 for 50% salary, was this because of the furlough cap? The government guidance at the beginning of the job retention scheme was very clear that you could not work and claim. You can report your employer to HMRC.

Refusal to pay is a ground for constructive dismissal. But you would have to leave to bring a tribunal case, there is a very short time limit thereafter to take action.

But you agreed the pay cut and reduction in notice though? In December 2020?

If you didn’t agree the pay cut in April/May you could bring a breach of contract claim about that once employment has ended. If you haven’t received your pension contributions you can claim for that.

Unless something else has now happened I can’t see any basis for constructive dismissal.

Thank you everyone.
I recently discovered instead of 10% pension being paid on my whole salary my employer has paid statutory amount of 3% on capped earnings (£46k is the limit I believe). The contact says 10% of salary which should have been £9500.

Yes the effective 50% pay cut in April and May was due to the furlough limit.

I am hopefully on the verge of handing in my notice. Final interview today. I am trying to square away if I walk away and chalk it to experience or push back ..

I’m interested in others views on this:
It has occurred to me recently that many women that I admire and who have been fantastically successful in their careers are strong, decisive, ethical and outspoken women.
I wondered how much of their success is due to these traits, and how much is down to luck about the people they have worked with - people who respect these traits and are not threatened by them, people who celebrate in others success, rather than trying to ‘keep others in their place’.
I ask this because people have described me in similar terms- strong, capable, fair, intelligent, outspoken and prepared to stick up for what is right. But I have experienced a disproportionate number of people, both male and female who have gone out of their way to make things very unpleasant for me. I know many other wonderful women who have had similar horrible stories at their places of work and have either been broken by them, or found the courage to stride out on their own and forge their own success in the world independent of a corporate/ business world.
There is the tedious and outdated saying that ‘behind every successful man is an exhausted woman’ - I wonder if a more modern equivalent is ‘For every successful woman, there are several who have been beaten down by threatened and spiteful colleagues’
I’m interested if this thought/ experience resonates with any other women out there?

I couldn't have said it better myself. Luck of the draw. I was incredibly fortunate early on to have a senior male manager not only mentor me but also fight for me behind the scenes multiple occasions (which I knew nothing of until I left the company). He confied to me years later that the board initially hadn't wanted to hire me because they thought I might be "difficult".