Hours and pay dropped with 16 hours notice

[mjr001]

I have worked for my employer for 4 years, I am salaried and paid monthly.

 

The directors called a meeting with the whole shop floor and told us they were cutting hours from 8 to 4 per day and cutting pay to suit. 90% are on clock and get paid hourly, I get a salary.

 

I cannot seem to find my contract at present but they are telling everyone they are quite within their rights to do what they have done as suggested by the company they use for employment legal services because of lack of work.

 

They also say that even though everyone has now been cut to 4 hours they must make themselves available for the full 8 hours of the day and cannot find extra work for the time they are at home.

 

Surely this cannot be legal ?

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

I don't know if it's legal but I can see why you're unhappy. I take it you're not unionised at work?

 

I'm tagging @Emmzziand hope she'll be able to get here an advise you. Please keep looking for your contract in case its wording is useful.

 

HB

[mjr001]

No there is no union at our workplace. 

[Emmzzi]

here's some information about short time working from ACA. You will see it may be legal; but you need to find your contact with some urgency to check!

 

Lay-offs and short-time working - Acas

WWW.ACAS.ORG.UK

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If an employer does not have enough work for their employees, these options may help.

 

[mjr001]

I have found my contract and it does says about short time working but does not say anything about the money dropping.

I am salaried on a yearly amount ?

[honeybee13]

Perhaps you could type up the relevant paragraph[s] please? It's useful to see the wording.

 

HB

[mjr001]

It says the company reserves the right to lay off employees or to introduce short time working should this be required in a downturn of work or other needs of the business. A more detailed explanation of the procedure is detailed in the employee handbook. 

 

I cannot find my original employee handbook but all staff except myself had an updated one emailed to them last month 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by mjr001

[Ethel Street]

Tell HR your copy of the updated staff handbook didn't arrive and ask for it to be resent.

 

You need to know what it says to see what the company is entitled to do.

 

Being on an annual salary doesn't automatically mean your pay can't be reduced for short time working.

[mjr001]

I have a copy of the updated handbook from another member of staff. I will copy and paste the paragraph in a short while

 

Layoff/short time working
If a situation arises where there is a reduction of work, or there is any other occurrence that affects the normal running of the business, the Company has a right to either layoff without pay other than Statutory Guarantee Payor implement shorter working hours and reduce pay in proportion with the reduction in working hours. This procedure is in line with your terms and conditions of employment.

The Company also reserves the right to select the employees best suited to carry out whatever work is available.

Employees will be offered alternative work wherever possible.

Employees who are laid off must still be available for work as and when necessary since continuity of service is not affected by any period of layoff.

The Company will pay Statutory Guarantee Pay in accordance with the current government regulations.

Any employee who is laid off for longer than the Statutory Guarantee Pay period will be given a letter to take to the relevant government agency. Employees should then be able to sign on as temporarily unemployed, even though they will still be employed by the Company.
,

 

[Emmzzi]

So I am afraid that seems to be legitimate.

[mjr001]

41 minutes ago, Emmzzi said:

So I am afraid that seems to be legitimate.

Ok thanks

[mjr001]

Just as a thought. Now they have changed the hours to short working, if they decide to change and make people redundant would they have to pay redundancy at full pay or half pay ?

[Ethel Street]

Does your contract or employee handbook say anything about how redundancy pay will be calculated?

 

If it says nothing then then I think you would only get statutory redundancy pay. Hopefully @Emmzzi can confirm this but I believe that your weekly pay for statutory redundancy purposes is the average you earned each week in the 12 weeks before you get your redundancy notice.  So yes your redundancy would be based, wholly or partly, on your short time working pay.

 

However companies can pay redundancy at higher rates if that is in your contract.  So important to check what your contract or employee handbook says.

 

There's a government website that let's you calculate what your statutory redundancy pay would be. You can test out various scenarios to see what you would get.  

/assets/static/govuk-opengraph-image-dade2dad5775023b0568381c4c074b86318194edb36d3d68df721eea7deeac4b.png

Calculate your statutory redundancy pay - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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Calculate how much statutory redundancy you can get based on age, weekly pay and number of years in the job

 

[Emmzzi]

I've only seen it paid out at normal rates but I cannot find anything that says legally they need to do anything but short time hours, per Ethel's calculation above. 

 

Depending on your salary that may be more or less than statutory maximum.