Reduce my pay because of working from home?

[Psm92]

Long story short, a few months ago I was diagnosed with a disability that causes a lot of fatigue, pain, etc. As such I have been wfh for the past few months. Other colleagues work from home 3 days a week, and attend the office twice a week. As my wfh is due to a health condition/disability, I would have thought this is a reasonable adjustment to enable me to let me do my job. I live in London.

My workplace is now saying they will have to reduce my salary because as my "principal workplace" is now the office, I do not qualify for the London weighting. Feeling really upset by this. Any advice?

@Psm92 the ‘luxury’ was not having to go into the office not having a disability . Many people I know who know work from home including my husband consider it a luxury not having to go to the office .

I’ve not seen a written definition of London allowance.

I always thought it was to recognise that life is more expensive in London so the employer pays more in order to attract and retain talent in London.

I should imagine that as this is a Civil Servant position, it will have been carefully worked through with a legal / HR team to ensure it’s watertight. It most certainly won’t have been some middle manager figuring it out in the back of a fag packet.

The way I see it is that this department has agreed to let staff continue to WFH with the understanding that those who choose to do so will lose their London weighting as they will no longer have commuting costs / additional childcare costs / less hours away from home due to no travel time. So far this makes sense. The OP also has the additional issue of disability and this possibly complicates the matter.
OP, your employer agrees that for you, WFH is appropriate. I’m not sure why you believe that you should also benefit from continuing to receive an additional allowance that’s awarded to people who work in the office? If the other workers who also chose to remain WFH lose this allowance, why would you not? You’d be on an equal footing pay wise surely?
I would, however, be looking at challenging the removal of this allowance if by doing so a worker’s pension would be affected. It’s a question I would be asking my HR / pension provider.

I don't know legalities.

However if originally everyone had to attend 5 days and it's changed to 2 and the LW remained the same I'd be at least seeming 0.6 of it to remain as everyone else wfh 0.6 and retains it.

However if the LW was paid paid and it only ever required you to go in 2 days you could maybe still argue this but that will depend on what the contract says and if everyone always get the full amount when the contract was 0.4 in office from the start.

Which if they can now WFH means those workers could, if they wished, move out of London and save themselves considerable costs. My SIL works for a London based business - but as he WFH, doesn’t have expensive housing costs.

@Soontobe60 I’m not sure why you believe that you should also benefit from continuing to receive an additional allowance that’s awarded to people who work in the office? If the other workers who also chose to remain WFH lose this allowance, why would you not? You’d be on an equal footing pay wise surely?

I'm not "choosing to wfh". It's a necessity that enables me to do my job, which my employer has agreed to. I have provided medical evidence, and Occupational Health have also recommended it. I do not have the "additional" issue of disability - it is the sole issue why I have to wfh.

So you are WFH and could live anywhere - how far out of London would you have to move for you to be happy with them removing this supplement? It is a supplement after all and not part of your actual salary.

I don’t understand why you think you’re entitled to to money for commuting when you are not commuting? I don’t see how the disability is relevant?

I would take advice from ACAS and possibly an employment solicitor. Your employer is reducing weighting for you and keeping weighting the same even though your colleagues are only commuting 2/5 of the time.

The problem is that you’re viewing it as you salary (you used the word pay). It isn’t - it’s an extra given to cover the cost of being obliged to either live near, or commute to (also dearer lunches, etc) an expensive city. As you fully work from home none of this is an obligation for you. Therefore the allowance is not relevant to you. So, quite correctly, it’s being stopped.

I was ready to agree YANBU but I’m not sure actually.

DH has a car allowance as part of his salary and this would naturally disappear if he didn’t drive. Similar to teaching - the London weighting is only for specified areas you work in, regardless of where you live. So teacher A could live in Surrey or Hampshire and work in inner London and get weighted pay, but teacher B could live in inner London and work in Surrey and not get it.

I'd compare it to something like car allowance. If my company gave everyone £500 pm car allowance and then after a few months I can no longer drive because I lost my licence I wouldn't be getting the car allowance any more.

I think th key point here op is if you’re in th office you need to live commutable to the office, as you’re looking to work from home full time arguably it’s then your choice where to live and as such are no longer entitled to the additional financi benefit. You could arguably move

i think you can only demand it if they are demanding you live in London, if they are not and it’s a personal choice to do so then you’re not entitled to additional compensation for it.

Cross posted there

Are you in a union? If so contact your rep.

Go to your union.

I don't think they can do this as you have a disability.

It wasn’t recent, but in 1998 I was getting London weighting when working for the NHS in Farnham, Surrey. It seems to cover a wide area (Farnham is an hour on the train to Waterloo)

London weighting is for commuting and also higher London residence costs.

You are also paying for your own broadband I presume even though using it for work.

You are also paying for your own broadband I presume even though using it for work.

Can't comment about London weighting but the good news is my broadband costs stayed the same when I started working from home so at least the op won't have that to worry about.

Occupational Health do not provide medical exemptions, they provide recommendations to support you in your workplace, your employer does not have to take these on board.

If your home is not in an area that is a London Weighted area, than yes, you will lose salary because it would be a lie to be given LWP when you aren't working within the area.

Sounds fair enough. It seems unfair on those people who do get themselves into the office that you get paid London weighting when you dont work in a london office. They may have working legs but they will have to take hours out of their day to commute. You don't have to do or pay for that.

I'd also be hacked off sat in regional offices that apparently all you have to do to get London weighting is get yourself attached to a London office but not actually work in that office.

@ZingotheDingo My home is in London. I live here.

Which is not really your employers problem anymore, given they don't need you to go into work!

I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm just saying that as you wfh you don't need to live somewhere expensive like London for work reasons. As far as your employer is concerned, the fact that you like to live in London as you own a house there/have support networks etc is really not their problem.

I feel you, as I am home based (although I try to go into the London office once a week) and so I don't get London Weighting, although my team who work a minimum of 2 days a week in London all do.

What do you do? Can it reasonably be done from home? I wonder if they are worried by letting you do this, then others will follow ....

Could you go into the office 1 day a week? Possibly do a shorter day when in the office - say 10 - 4 and make up the time on your wfh days.