Contract Of Employment

[Guest terrydoo73]

I was offered a position as leader of a new playgroup which opened in January of this year. Somehow my offer of employment letter went missing and was never replaced so I didn't receive anything in writing. Initially when the job was advertised it stated 25 hours per week and the exact hours to be worked. After starting employment these hours were reduced to 22 1/2 hours with the understanding that this would be corrected quite quickly - some disagreement with the Committee members questioning the work I was undertaking. I received verbal confirmation a couple of weeks later that the hours were back up to 25. However I have discovered that for the past 6 months I have still only been paid for 22 1/2 hours. Our agreement is that we work for 45 weeks in the year - leaving out July and August ie only employed from September to June, however we are actually receiving payment for 52 ie spread out over the whole year as a way of retaining our employment throughout the summer.

 

We have now been given our contracts of employment to sign and it seems to contradict itself. In one paragrah we are told we are entitled to 24 days paid holiday and it lists these as being Christmas, Easter, Hallowe'en and a few other public holidays as well as July and August which if you add it up is way more than 24 days. Then in the next paragraph it says that if we go over the 24 days we will not receive payment for the rest???

 

The contract also states that I am employed for 25 hours per week.

 

Where do I stand? Can I ask for the additional hours I haven't received payment for the past 6 months ie nearly 60 hours? Also how do we get around the holidays?

[HappyMaz]

As I understand it even if you don't have a written contract you have a contract by dint of the fact that you have been working those hours. Have you been receiving payslips? These should make it clear what you're being paid for, and clearly if they have been underpaying you then you are owed some backpay.

 

This is all very complicated, and my advice would be to give Citizen's Advice a call tomorrow to see if they can help. The ACAS website and helpline are also incredibly helpful. You certainly need some sound advice before you sign your contracts.

 

Good luck. Are you the only one with queries about the contract?

[mundia]

On the other hand if your pay is spread over the whole year rather than the 10 months, this would probably work out at about 22.5 hours per week over the whole year. Worth checking it out and getting it word correct so there are no misunderstandings.

[Guest]

I always thought that even verbal contracts are legally binding?

[Guest terrydoo73]

I rang the Labour Relations hotline today for some advice and was clearly told that as I only started in January I wouldn't have a leg to stand on in terms of claiming the additional money because I have only been working 6 months - they advised to raise it with my employer asap to clarify whether they are aware of the position.

 

When we met with our employers (myself, my Deputy and the assistant) in January I asked for the additional 2 1/2 hours per week and all 3 representatives of the employers were agreed that this request seemed reasonable although apparently after the meeting one representative said no it wasn't. However a few weeks later I was told that they were all now in agreement to the additional hours but I have no witnesses to this fact - only told by my direct manager. It adds up to about 60 hours in total over the past 6 months which is a considerable amount of money and I am fearful of asking for it to be honest but then I weigh up the cost of employing another person purely for the admin side and think no it is not really that much and really keeping me to do maintains confidentiality and someone actually knowing what they are doing rather than having to train someone specifically to do it.

 

What brought it all to my attention was the Contract of Employment which should have been with us (we were told this by our employers on Friday) in January as it is a law thing that we should have these within a certain period of time after commencing employment. This Contract states clearly 25 hours per week but when I checked with the person who makes up our payslips and by my own calculation I discovered it is 22 1/2 hours per week.

 

My Deputy has queries too which really relate to the holiday entitlement. In the first paragraph they say 24 paid days per year and then in the next sentence they list the holidays. The following sentence says that the exact days will be advised to us by the beginning of each school term ie September. It includes in the list of holidays July and August but we have an agreement with the employer that we don't get paid for July and August so why include these within the list of 24 paid days? When we counted up the days excluding these 2 months they came to more than 24 days and were not in line with the local primary schools holidays which is what the original agreement was ie it states 2 days at hallowe'en when in fact we are off 5 days etc etc.

[Fredbear]

Hi as you are not full time is your pay pro rata so that you get a salary throughout the whole year.

Without listing your holiday entitlements its difficult to say what they are or not giving you.

I would suggest you request a chat with your Manager to iron out any discrepancies.

If its found that they are wrong, better that you have notified them now.

There is a website with how to calculate your holiday pay entitlement i will see if i can find it for you.

[Fredbear]

Okay i know that you are from our Irish shores so not sure if this will be accurate for you, but if you go on DirectGov.uk and type in holiday entitlement it states all about holiday payments.

Hope it helps.

[Devondaisy]

Bridger is right, and that was exactly what I was going to say. I looked into it recently, and employees are entitled to a minimum of 5.8 weeks holiday pay. However, this can be made up of 4 weeks holiday and the rest payment for bank holidays.

 

Just to let you know what we do, as we are all term time employees - whenever there is a holiday during the year, eg Easter 2 weeks off, or half term 1 week, or indeed a bank holiday, we don't get paid. So, in effect, we only get paid for the hours actually worked that month. However, in august we get 5.8 weeks pay, (even though we don't work at all in August.)

 

It sounds to me as if your employers are trying to make your pay more balanced, which is good, but you really do need to sit down with your manager and work out exactly what you're getting. It all sounds very confused at the moment.