Help me word a letter to Personnel please?

[AlicesWonderland]

Hi

It had been agreed with my work place that my hours change to term time only with effect from 1st April this year

this had all been agreed with my line manager and her manager, and I would be told this would be sorted out.

This was before xmas, In feb as I had still not heard how much I would be getting paid or shown a revised contract etc, I went into the office after getting sick of being fobbed off by my line manager only to be told taht I would have to fill out a form to change my hours which I did, a month ago

Still not having heard anything I called HR (which is based at head office) and was told payroll would tell me my wage, I called them and got a very vague figure for my wage as she didn;t know if I would be working training days etc

I want to write a ltter to HR and copy the school office in as I NEED to know how much I am getting paid and they just don;t seem to care, I am also very very concerned that this has not been sorted out and I will end up getting over paid and owing them money

I also have a holiday booked in June which I know I will have to take unpaid which I have repeatedly informed my line manager of and the office, and HR over the phone but noone seems to want to confirm this so I would like to inform them in writng just to protect myself incase they try to make out I'm springing this on them

I stil do not have a copy of my current contract despite at least 4 requests to the office and HR in the last year, and I can see the same happening again

TIA

anyone?

pretty please

ok, i would sit down with some paper and start with something along the lines of

dearxxxx

I agreed before christmas with my line manager xxx and her manager xxx to change my working hours to term time only, i have also filled out form xxx, however i have not received copies of either my current or revised contract or had any confirmation in writing despite several requests (list these if you can).

It is now 3 months further down the line and I need this confirmation by return in order to contact the payroll department with a query.

Please send to me by return in the envelope provided, a copy of my current contract, a copy of my revised contract and a letter confirming the revised hours are agreed.

yours sincerely

xxxxx

maybe put something in there along the lines of 'if i don't hear back within 3 weeks of the date of this letter I shall be obligated to contact xxx head of HR and xxx head of accounting/ payroll to bring this matter to a conclusion'

any help?

yeah that's great thanks

Do you think I should even copy the office in or just deal straight with HR?

What ninja said but don't put the threat in.

If this is the first time you've written then I'd advise treating it as if this is the first time you've raised this (frustrating I know but you don't want to put the back up of the person who's desk this lands on).

I would specify a time for replying, by return is unreasonable if they've not drawn up the new contract yet. Allow a week.

Also, if it's just a change of hours you probably won't get a new contract, just a statement of variation to your existing contract.

Put the dates the meetings when you spoke to your manager and her manager if you can. If you can't be specific then put the month or week commencing date.

Put the date you filled out the form.

Keep it really brief but supply a telephone number where they can reach you to ask questions/clarify points. What you want to know if how much you will be paid. That should be a simple enough calculation, so you can ask them to give you that information by telephone if it speeds up the process.

Don't be stroppy in your letter (vent on here instead!) but do be concise and factual.

And I'd send this letter to your line manager but cc HR.

right thanks justanother

Should I include a bit about the holiday or not?

I can't remeber any exact dates at all but just about remember the months, I'm going to go in and ask in the office again, just really frustrated that I haven't been given all the details before I've agreed to it iykwim

Yes I would. Because at this stage you're writing a letter to raise some issues that you have.

I would write a letter to your manager and copy in HR along the lines of:

Dear XXXX

I am writing regarding the change to my working hours from ABC to XYZ we agreed before Christas and that are due to come into effect on 1st April 2010.

To date I have not yet received a Statement of Variation to my terms and conditions or details of my new salary. As you know I completed form X on XXX so I would have expected to have had confirmation by now.

Could you please as soon as possible - and at the latest by Friday - when I can expect to receive the Statement of Variation and what my new salary will be?

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask you to confirm the holiday from X June until X June 2010 has been agreed as we discussed.

If you have any questions about this, or would like further clarification please don't hesisitate to contact me on XXXXXX

Yours sincerely

AlicesWonderland

thanks yeah that doesn't sound like I'm being arsey lol

right I'll do that tonight and post it out tomorrow

Thanks

sorry to be a pain just one more thing I didn;t fill out the form to change my hours until the end of feb, as noone had told me I needed to do this neither HR or anyone in the office or my line manager

It was only by chance that someone told me I had to do this, should I explain the delay between christmas when the new hours were agreed and feb when the form was filled out or just leave it?

Sorry - Just a technical point -

Have they confirmed the number of weeks you will work?

If they have you can calculate salary by taking current weekly salary, and times by this by number of weeks you will work, giving you the gross salary pa ? as you will still do the same number of hours per week.

If they have not confirmed the number of weeks, you need to ensure the number of weeks worked includes "holiday" eg. if you assume 6 weeks summer, 2 @ Xmas, and 2 @ Easter (I know there are others but to as a demo) this gives 10 weeks "off"

Legislation states paid holiday of (approx) 5 weeks for a full time worker (inc bank holidays) so whatever they deduct, they need to take this into consideration - in the above example of the 10 weeks only just over half would be "unpaid"

Not needed for the letter but you should confirm the number of weeks paid work in the year includes holiday equivalent so you are not missing out

thanks OneOf8 I did speak to someone in payroll who asked how many weeks I would be working and gave me a fugure (which thankfully does include holiday, so at least I won't have to argue that with them hopefully. although when I first mentioned this the lady in the office (the one supposed to be sorting all of this out, she did argue with me that you didn't get holiday as the school hols were your hols ) but anyway I don't think that's a problem

I do need to ask though if I am to work the training days or not

No you don't need to explain it in the letter. The letter has the facts, if they want to query the delay they can ring you. But it doesn't make any difference to your request so I wouldn't cloud the issue with it.

One would expect you to work training days if everyone else is - just because you're part-time doesn't mean you should be excluded from any mandatory training. How they want to word that in your contract you might have some opinions on though - so if you want to know you could put that in your letter. Something along the lines of "Please could you explain what will happen with regard to working training days? Are they included in my contractual hours or will I be expected to work these in addition to my core hours and be paid overtime?" or something.

I'm a cleaner so there's no training that I'd be missing, they asked me in payroll if I'd be working them or not and I have no idea and neither do the office

right I have done that thanks for all your help and hopefully I shall get all this sorted out soon

There could still be training: Health and safety, manual handling, COSHH all spring to mind.

And if there is teacher training going on the potential for coffee and biscuit spills is high. So you could be needed!

Although I accept probably not training on teaching the 3 Rs to infants

Hi it's me I'm back again well sent the letter and have had no reply at all through the school or through HR

I'm getting paid tomorrow and have absolutely no idea how much I'm getting paid, which I understand it's a big deal to some people but I really needed to know as we are on a tight budget as it is

I have a feeling I will get paid my usual wage, as I think we work two weeks in hand or something like that, but what should I do if they continue to pay me incorrectly?

I mean I have phoned so many times and been referred back to the school, I have been into the school office and she's just shrugged her shoulders and dismissed me like she couldn't give a shit and I have written a letter to HR and sent it recorded delivery so I know they've got it what more can I do....

Hello, I'm not an expert, but I looked into a similar situation for a friend (who wanted to go to four days a week). I found this directgov site useful: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_173304. I also found that said friend's employer (a government department) had a special section on its website explaining how part-time workers were treated in relation to pay, leave, training, bank holidays & etc. I would suggest - if you feel like doing an internet search - that you find out your employer's HR site and see if there's something similar there. The following is useful too: www.ietconnect.org/documents/IETConnectRightsforparttimeworkersFactsheetfinal.pdf. Note that my understanding of current legislation is that part-time workers are meant to be treated equitably in comparison with their full-time colleagues. I cannot fathom how an HR person could suggest the summer holidays are your leave, unless s/he didn't realise you were asking about your status after going part-time.

I hope this helps.

thanks will have a read of those now

No she definately meant that as I would have the school holidays off that I would accrue no holiday

Tbh I should have expected this I've had them trying to tell me that I did not accrue any holiday whilst on maternity leave and when I called HR myself I was told that I had, went back into office and she lied and said she had spoken to them and I was term time only already managed to sort this out eventually but had I not have asked on here I would have missed out on about three weeks hols

Also refused risk assessment whilst pregnant as they just laughed at me when I told them and HR just really didn;t care when I told them about this......is really concerning really seeing as how it's a local authority