Just been told I am losing 5% of my salary...

ubern00b

ubern00b

ubern00b

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25 Nov 2004
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I will be seeking proper advice but as with most things... let's ask OCUK first!

I have worked on-call for about the last 10 years at a base rate of 9.5% of my salary and then claiming overtime for any actual work that needs doing. This is for a 1 in 3 rota. 1 in 4+ commands a rate of 4.5%.

I have just been informed that I have been paid incorrectly since August last year and as of September I will be dropping to the 4.5% rate but they will not be asking to reclaim any money for the period I was paid incorrectly.

My question I guess is, can anything be done about this? The only thing that keeps playing in my mind is that I have been doing this for ~10 years, surely at some point that becomes "part of your salary" as you rely on it, you build your budgets around it etc. If it was £50 or something then I wouldn't be so bothered but its £200 a month I suddenly don't have anymore.

Beside the fact that I give my all to this company, I work and respond to issues outside of my on-call rota as that's just what being a team player is all about. Myself and my colleague are the most senior members of the team outside of my Manager and Director so I feel it is part of my remit. However business sees things in black and white i guess and I need to try leave the emotion out of it, the extra I do is on my shoulders, not theirs.

Starting to rant a little now but the TL;DR: Getting 5% of my salary taken away from me due to a longer on-call rotation. Due to how long i have been doing it, can I fight this at all?
 
Are the rates for the two rotas detailed out in contracts of official documents? Have you actually been working on 1 in 3 or 1 in 4? What changed?
 
mrbell1984 said:
What's your contract say?
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My legal rights aren't going to be detailed in my contact, are they?

cheesyboy said:
Are the rates for the two rotas detailed out in contracts of official documents? Have you actually been working on 1 in 3 or 1 in 4? What changed?
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THey are detailed somewhere in official documents, yes. Members of the team stopped doing on-call then came back and we also recruited so the numbers have been up and down. I guess it's been 1 in 4 since August last year.

I'm not really questioning whether they can do it or not, I just have a niggle in the back of my mind that I was told once if you get paid something or work in a certain way for a substantial period of time, that autonomously becomes your working conditions. I may be utterly confused of course.
 
ubern00b said:
I'm not really questioning whether they can do it or not, I just have a niggle in the back of my mind that I was told once if you get paid something or work in a certain way for a substantial period of time, that autonomously becomes your working conditions. I may be utterly confused of course.
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You're talking about custom and practice which isn't going to apply to errors in pay.
 
ubern00b said:
My legal rights aren't going to be detailed in my contact, are they?


THey are detailed somewhere in official documents, yes. Members of the team stopped doing on-call then came back and we also recruited so the numbers have been up and down. I guess it's been 1 in 4 since August last year.

I'm not really questioning whether they can do it or not, I just have a niggle in the back of my mind that I was told once if you get paid something or work in a certain way for a substantial period of time, that autonomously becomes your working conditions. I may be utterly confused of course.
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You're thinking of the 'custom and practice' principle.

It doesn't extend to payroll errors, sadly. Only exception might be if you had queried if the rate you were on was correct, and had been reassured that it was.
 
="ubern00b"]I'm not really questioning whether they can do it or not, I just have a niggle in the back of my mind that I was told once if you get paid something or work in a certain way for a substantial period of time, that autonomously becomes your working conditions. I may be utterly confused of course.
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It's your contract that matters. Not sure where you heard this from but it's never been the case. If you no longer doing what you where doing for the extra 5% yeh they can take it off you.
 
Reads to me like you got 9.5% for being on 1in3, changed to 1in4 in August but they didn't change you to the 4.5% rate. They've now noticed and said they're putting you on the correct compensation as of Sept and letting you keep the year's worth of overpayment?

I'm not sure quite what you're expecting to achieve or argue? That because they overpaid you for a year they should be bound to do so permanently? Not sure you'll get very far with that
 
I have looked up "custom and practice" and that is indeed what I was thinking of, applying it to the wrong thing.

I understand they can re-claim the money legally so I'm not going to push anything but if I don't do my due dilligence then I only have myself to blame for a 5% decrease in my salary. I may be doing a longer on-call rotation now officially but unoffiially I would always make myself available should i need to be, should a system break and I held the knowledge more than others etc. Sure, my own fault but if you look at it like that then I do far more than 1 in 3 even.

Kenai said:
I'm not sure quite what you're expecting to achieve or argue? That because they overpaid you for a year they should be bound to do so permanently? Not sure you'll get very far with that
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Lol not at all, I was trying to argue that because I had been recieving this for ~10+ years can they just turn around and reduce it.

I'm not after money for nothing, it's just a financial shock and I want to be sure that the kick in the pants can't be avoided somehow. That's all.
 
mrbell1984 said:
It's not nice losing money, maybe ask them if there are extra duties to make up the cost? If not then it looks like you will need to reduce outgoings somehow.
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He isn't losing money. He was unfairly gaining money previously though.
 
mrbell1984 said:
It's not nice losing money, maybe ask them if there are extra duties to make up the cost? If not then it looks like you will need to reduce outgoings somehow.
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Yea I will do this. It doesn't leave me in a terrible position, just not as great as it once was. Paying back all my mistakes from my younger years and getting my debt to 0 is a year out, now its more like a year and a half to two years out.

Business can be very short sighted sometimes. All they are telling me is that there is no appreciation for any of the times i jumped in when needed and as such I certainly won't be doing it in future. Try contact me outside of working hours and on-call now, not going to happen (and it happend a lot).

Thank you to everyone who replied, it is appreciatd :)
 
Dis86 said:
He isn't losing money. He was unfairly gaining money previously though.
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Lost of semantics and ways you can look at it. I think a lot of people are missing the fact that I got paid this FOR A DECADE. As far as I was concerned, it was my salary. Rightly or wrongly, black and white, I simply won't beleive anyone who says they wouldn't see it like that after such a time period.
 
I guess the only question that remains is why did you move over to 1 in 4 last August if you wanted the same money?
 
ubern00b said:
Business can be very short sighted sometimes. All they are telling me is that there is no appreciation for any of the times i jumped in when needed and as such I certainly won't be doing it in future. Try contact me outside of working hours and on-call now, not going to happen (and it happend a lot).
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Well you not in the wrong for doing that. Been on call means on call and they have taken that right away. Not your fault. Also I have been in the same situation. You go all out to help and you don't even get a thank you.

I got sick of trying to put in as much effort as possible. At the end of the day it's a business, they need income to survive.
 
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