Thanks for all your help on this , ill report back after tomorrows meeting , if only for interest reasons !

the ironic thing is she did countless shifts over the last few months , weekends , nights sleep overs etc , just to get some money in for the baby we have now and the car etc ! now she may have to do it all again , for nothing ! breaks my heart , i hate her employers they have really messed her about from the minute she said she was pregnant the first time , long story

abuse of contract was another ACAS offering.... Well ,we will see what Thursday brings , our last defence was pleading financial hardship (true) and they are yet to find out my wife is due in august....good god what a mess

n/t

Thanks I am still struggling with this a bit though , the government website says "A contract of employment is a legally binding agreement between you and your employer. A breach of contract happens when either you or your employer breaks one of the terms. For example, if your employer doesn't pay your wages, or you don't work the agreed hours" So , its legally binding except where the employer made a cock up and can change it at the drop of a hat , whilct also deducting money...?!?

Hmmm , ok , what about the fact that if they take too much it would leave her under the minimum wage threshold....?

Hi Thanks for your reply Do you think then , that a contract amendment , signed by both parties , is worthless ? in the eyes of anyone outside looking in ? Have they not paid the salary as per contract ?

Hello Happy New Year to all , i hope i can share this with you guys and maybe get some advice If I give the time line of events, it may help My wife works in care, for Autistic adults, which has various working locations (Houses for the people in care, staffed by support workers etc, such as my wife) she went onto Maternity Leave April 2009, and the baby was born in May 2009, at that time, for the location my wife worked at, and the full time role she carried out she was paid £18159 At a returning to work meeting at our house in December 2009, it was explained by HR and her manager that her previous role could not be fulfilled as a part time employee at that particular location and the company were trying to locate where best to place my wife as a part time employee where it would also suit the business and our childcare arrangements etc.. They came up with somewhere else, and were advised the hourly rate was less as the previous place was including car maintenance in the pay etc... My wife returned to work , part time , in Jan 2010 , work sent through a contract in Feb 2010 , but it still stated the PREVIOUS location of work , so my wife sent it back , didn’t sign it and said please send me the correct details etc ....she chased it more than once but never heard anything until August 2010. What was sent through was this, word for word... “Re: changes in hours and salary Please accept my apologies that you did not receive a letter from HR to confirm this change at the time it took place. This letter is to confirm that you have changed your working hours as follows: Job Title: Support Worker Location: ******* Hours: 16 Hours New Salary £8, 023, 96 per annum Effective from 9/11/09 All other terms and conditions of employment remain unaltered .Please would you return your copy, duly signed and dated to confirm your acceptance for our records. Signed HR Now , fast forward to last Friday , my wife received a call from HR to say a mistake has been made their end , someone hasn’t altered my wife’s salary when they should have done or something like that, and that her salary , due to her new role etc should have been £6925.39 and as of 1/12/10 it would be adjusted to that , a new contract to sign is in the post , apparently....not only that , but she owes the company £1k in overpaid back pay..during the phone conversation , my wife said to HR , how can you do that , you have just told me it’s a error your end , and dating Aug 2010 I have a updated contract amendment , showing my salary , if you can backdate this apparent overpayment then surely that makes this contract not worth the paper it is written on ? , the HR lady said she was just passing along what she was told to say , so we don’t know their next move , but she did assure , until further discussion , nothing would be take out of her salary...that is how it is now... So now , we are worried sick , firstly we don’t think it’s appropriate that we have a contract stating the pay , that they can just back pedal on and try and scrape back money , surely they should swallow the mistake made at their end and ask my wife to sign the new contract , if she wants , or leave , I guess ?! The thought of any money coming out of her wage of £577 a month for the next gods knows how long, is giving us sleepless nights! We are really convinced that strictly speaking this isn't overpayment of salary. They have paid her salary as detailed in her contract (which was signed by both parties). But they are now saying tht the contract is incorrect. Not quite the same as overpayment of salary wedon't think. After speaking to ACAS we wrote to her employer and stated an offical grievance with the proposal to recoup the apparent overpayment and my wife has been invited to an `informal meeting` to discuss the grievance in relation to an overpayment , one of the arguments from us ,was the view from ACAS that it is under customs and practice guidelines reasonable for an employee to receive a certain amount for an extended period of time , to be entitled to believe the amount payable is correct... Can any kind soul out there, please give us some advice?