Council pay below NMW!!!

[gingerjedi]

I know its not contractor related but I wonder if anyone has any legal experience of this?

My wife has just started a new job with the local council after a year on maternity leave, it’s a simple clerical job just to get her out the house for 2.5 days per week 15k pro rata.

The feckers have diddled her on her first months pay meaning she has earned less than NMW for the hours she has worked, their calculation goes like this:

15k / 2 (pro rata) / 12 months / 31 (days in October) x 10 (the number of working days since she had started 5 of which she worked) which works out at £5.45 ph

Her salary should work out at £7.80 ph for a 37 hour week (pro rata), she has complained but they are sticking to their guns, how does a government department get away with this?

[THEPUMA]

I know its not contractor related but I wonder if anyone has any legal experience of this?

My wife has just started a new job with the local council after a year on maternity leave, it’s a simple clerical job just to get her out the house for 2.5 days per week 15k pro rata.

The flipers have diddled her on her first months pay meaning she has earned less than NMW for the hours she has worked, their calculation goes like this:

15k / 2 (pro rata) / 12 months / 31 (days in October) x 10 (the number of working days since she had started 5 of which she worked) which works out at £5.45 ph

Her salary should work out at £7.80 ph for a 37 hour week (pro rata), she has complained but they are sticking to their guns, how does a government department get away with this?

Isn't the nub of the problem, that they should have divided by the number of working days in October rather than the total number of days?

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

There's not 31 working day in October which is where your calcaultion is flawed I think. Reverse calculate it:

£7.8o per hour for 18.75 hours = £146.25 X 52 weeks = £7,605 X 2 (reversing pro-rata) = £15,210.

That's how salary payments work.

[pmeswani]

I know its not contractor related but I wonder if anyone has any legal experience of this?

My wife has just started a new job with the local council after a year on maternity leave, it’s a simple clerical job just to get her out the house for 2.5 days per week 15k pro rata.

The flipers have diddled her on her first months pay meaning she has earned less than NMW for the hours she has worked, their calculation goes like this:

15k / 2 (pro rata) / 12 months / 31 (days in October) x 10 (the number of working days since she had started 5 of which she worked) which works out at £5.45 ph

Her salary should work out at £7.80 ph for a 37 hour week (pro rata), she has complained but they are sticking to their guns, how does a government department get away with this?

Typically, there is 20 working days in a month, plus a few days here and there. I suggest that you rework your calculations, unless your wife works more than 5 days a week and 7.x hours a day.

[Sockpuppet]

There's not 31 working day in October which is where your calcaultion is flawed I think. Reverse calculate it:

£7.8o per hour for 18.75 hours = £146.25 X 52 weeks = £7,605 X 2 (reversing pro-rata) = £15,210.

That's how salary payments work.

Typically, there is 20 working days in a month, plus a few days here and there. I suggest that you rework your calculations, unless your wife works more than 5 days a week and 7.x hours a day.

I think jedi was implying that the councils calculation was flawed. I.e. that's how they worked it out wrong.

[Hex]

I once worked for a company that worked out a daily rate using calendar days in a month rather than working days.

It meant getting paid for holidays not taken was a rip off, but it also meant that taking unpaid leave was very good value. To take it to an extreme you could have taken off 4 weeks unpaid leave and only been docked 20 / 31 days of your salary in that month. Nobody I know ever took 4 weeks unpaid leave, but I did take 2 weeks at one point.

Using 31 days in this way usually means that the HR department really don't understand how maths works.

[gingerjedi]

I think jedi was implying that the councils calculation was flawed. I.e. that's how they worked it out wrong.

I am… there's nothing wrong with the way I would calculate it! The calculation I’ve shown is what she was given when she queried it... bloody scandalous if you ask me.

It seems obvious that some bean counter has realised that they can diddle their own people out of a few quid and save the tax payer money at the same time, I just don't see how they can justify not paying NMW?

[Moscow Mule]

I just don't see how they can justify not paying NMW?

They can't. Get the local rag involved.

[manstein]

Or you could write to Rotten Boroughs in Private Eye, if they are ripping people off wholesale (especially the demographic of the much touted Labour Minimum Wage / taking people out of poverty) they might be interested.

Whenever my (previous) accountant made a mess of things by calculating wrong (I'm sure I missed most of them as I just took everything on trust) they would always just say 'oops, sorry, clerical error, we have informed the relevant department and this won't happen again, thanks for bringing it to our attention'.

[ASB]

I am… there's nothing wrong with the way I would calculate it! The calculation I’ve shown is what she was given when she queried it... bloody scandalous if you ask me.

It seems obvious that some bean counter has realised that they can diddle their own people out of a few quid and save the tax payer money at the same time, I just don't see how they can justify not paying NMW?

I would imagine it is explicit in the contract that it is pro-rate on a 37.5 hour week.

If it isn't, and the council are adamant they are right then make the appropriate NMW complaint.