Part time contract still working full time - anyone?

[parttimewarrior]

I'm at the beginning of what is going to be a legal battle with a law firm about this. I know I'm not the only person to have found themselves in this situation (and I won't be the last) - but I'm reaching out for my own sanity to hear other stories too.

Here's mine.

I returned to work full-time and it was too much. I asked to reduce my hours to a 4.5 day working week and the firm agreed. My salary and holiday entitlement were reduced to reflect the reduction in my contractual working hours.

The thing is, my actual working hours didn't change. In fact, at some points I worked even more than when I was "full-time". The result: the firm took the benefit of the hours that I worked and didn't pay for them. It decided that I was not entitled to be paid for, or receive holiday pay based on, 35 hours work per week even when I worked at least 35 hours per week because my contract was for 4.5 days. Colleagues were entitled to be paid for and receive holiday pay based on the same 35 hours of work because their contract was for 5 days.

Informal then formal grievance and appeal got nowhere. So now I've started a claim.

Is this a problem that's as prevalent as I think it is? Has it happened to you or someone you know?

It's just beyond wrong!

How many hours were you contracted for?

Why did you work more than your contracted hours?

What are your set hours / days? Why can’t you finish on time, take your half day off?

Lawyer here and yes it's a problem. Part time work is often not supported at all... Well known in my circles that 4 days is full time work, part time pay, ie an excuse to pay women less and block promotion for the same work. My boss now just turns down requests for 4 days and once gave 4.5 with no pay reduction. I don't know what the answer is :(

I am contracted 26 hrs per week, don't work less than 40.
But my salary is not pro rata - the salary is for the job I do, which I do very well.
My holiday etc is pro rata
but my manager is fully flexible in that I take any time off I like without logging it as I am technically owed massed of TOIL
If my manager were to change this would be a huge issue.
One director of the company (huge company) did question my contracted hours and luckily this was shut down.
I am contracted less hours as have two small kids and need the flexibility- for me it's a risk. But I feel the benefits outweigh it at the moment.

Two issues
WRT holiday pay make sure you are clear you are claiming holiday pay for additional hours worked not overtime. Additional hours are those worked over your part time hours up to full time so 0.5 of a day. Use the Prevention of Less favourable treatment for part timers regs as well as working time regs as you are receiving less holiday than full time employees for working a 5 day week.

Second issue going forward is to decide do you want to work part time, if so stop doing the extra hours. Be clear in writing that xyz are not going to be done and just do your hours. The other option is go back full time - get paid for the hours you work.

Yes some employers are cheeky fuckers unless you stand up to them.

If you’re a lawyer it’s very hard because it isn’t a 9-5 job. It’s a work until the necessary tasks are done job. Presumably your billing targets are reduced?
I’ve only ever know people to make it work where they have a whole day off and dont log on at all on that day. Otherwise you have no chance and it was foreseeable that 4.5 days would never work.

Not a lawyer, but yes, definitely experiencing similar...

DH (salaried, not working in legal though) reduced his hours and found similar. The clear day off works just fine, but in practice the reduced working day rarely materialises.
Would taking a full day off every other week work for you?

I returned to work full-time and...

Returned from what? A holiday, weekend, sickness, unpaid leave, maternity leave or something else???

Why were you working more hours than contracted and paid for? At the companies request, you needed to do that to get things done or some other reason?

Working over your hours is fairly standard in legal firms

I did 4 days in teaching and found the same, I suspect your job is similar in that you never feel as though you finish your to do list. I think you either need to be militant about leaving promptly on your half day and be generally a bit more work to rule about your job or step back up to full time so you're at least getting paid for the hours you're doing.

Appreciate everybody sharing. Agree, this is very common practice in law and other areas - doesn't mean it's ok or that it should continue.

If things carry on as they are now it means more and more women effectively working for free despite doing exactly the same 35 hours as their peers.

I'm trying to do something about it.

What you should do about it is change your hours to a nine day fortnight rather than start an instagram campaign..

You’re also ignoring the fact that your colleagues don’t do a 35 hour week because it’s not that kind of job. In all likelihood closer to 50-60. Plus it would be exactly the same for a male colleague

It's not very clear what you are trying to do about it.

But there is one single very effective action you can take to resolve this which is simply, to stop doing it.

It doesn't matter what industry you're in. It doesn't change until you stop. Contract and Employment law is already on your side in relation to this.

So what are you trying to change?

OP did the firm adjust your chargeable hours target?

Do you have a male comparator who is doing like work, work of equal value or work rates as equivalent and works the same hours but is paid more than you? If not then how are you making out an equal pay claim? It simply isn’t an equal pay case.

Are you actually an employment lawyer OP? There’s no way it will cost £50k to go to tribunal.

it seems like you’re saying that because you worked more than 9-5 (and 9-12.30 on your half day) then you should get extra annual leave. But your annual leave is calculated based on your contracted days. If it was based on hours actually worked most lawyers would be entitled to shit loads of leave. Plus you’ll have wording on your contract which says that you have to work such hours as are necessary to do the job. We are not hourly paid.

I am genuinely interested in how you’re pleading this OP. Presumably you’re trying to run an argument that there should be some sort of implied term that contractual holiday increases with hours worked for salaried employees. I can’t work out how you’d run this though given that you won’t have a 9-5 contract. If you were successful with such an argument it would have a profound impact on almost every private sector salaried role in the country and people would be on leave for long periods of time every year.

I'm paid to do a job. My boss does 60 hour weeks. I'm paid for 33 hours and I usually do around 40.

Short days aren't that difficult - you just get up and go home? I have to pick dc up from school, I have to leave at 2.30. Are you being physically barricaded in the office or stapled to your office chair??

I sympathise but fear you’ve been rather naive here. 4.5 days isn’t part time enough to be able to realistically set firm parameters about cutting down workload aside from 20% reduction in bills led targets and often means, as you’ve found, you’ve just negotiated yourself a 10% pay cut. high end professional services is dreadful at respecting any semblance of work life balance generally.

I have never understood why part-time workers insist on being treated exactly like full-timers in every aspect, except when it comes to working beyond their contracted hours.
Not only that - how is 3 hours less work a week going to make a material impact on workload? That's what 4.5 days pretty much equates to.
Why not 3 days or even 4? What's with the .5?

I agree that you had odd expectations to reduce to 4.5 days a week, when you are working in a job where people don't work set hours and then clock off.
I am not sure how work is allocated in law, but you need to think about that before asking for anything part time - how will this be measured ?

Some jobs are strictly hourly paid.
Some jobs have measures like 'number of clients / service users / patients / customers'
You needed to be aware of how your particular job is measured (and I'm assuming for a lawyer it isn't hourly paid), then you set boundaries for what 90% of a full week is, and stick to it.

Your holiday argument is bizarre - it is reasonable and expected that anyone who is on a PT contract with have the same % of holidays as the % worked.

Oh, and I'm speaking as someone who worked PT in a job that doesn't have set hours, but who set themselves clear boundaries.

I don't think the detail of your claim is clear enough. From your blog you're saying you worked over your contracted hours for a year and raised a grievance which was not upheld.

You're argument that male employees on full time contracts received greater pay and holidays will be flakey as there are likely women in the same position also.

You case can only be built on the fact that the contract law was clear but the material reality of employment expectations was different and the firm refuted this. You will have to argue the meaning of 'working above contracted hours' - what dis the firm consider acceptable
or not - and so on and prove that the firms agreement for you to cut to 4.5 days was never realistically going to meet their expectations and they entered into the contract with you negligently.

but thats contract law. you both retained the right to terminate the employment if it wasn't working for you.

also if you were asking to be paid the extra hours - were you asking for a change in your current teems and conditions - tp receive overtime pay and benefits? or were you asking for your contract tp return as it was given you were working the hours anyway?

Can you prove that your case load was no different from you or other employees (male or female)?

Discrimination will be difficult. Because you need hard evidence you were treated differently based on a protected characteristic.

be interested to hear what position your lawyers are planning for this.

Ironically OP is an employment lawyer (according to her GoFundMe) and should be able to explain the legal position to us in detail - but she hasn't.