Am I being paid correctly?

[robgoals]

Hello,

I'm work on a zero hours contract. I wanted to see if I've interpreted the contract correctly, I think I'm being underpaid.

Pay is stated in the contract as £20/hour with 5.6 weeks annual leave. My payslip says £18/hour with the remainder made up of annual leave. For example a 10 hour shift is £18/hour plus 1.1 hours of annual leave for £200 total or £20/hour. I was expecting annual leave on top of the £20/hour.
Does that sound right? Previously I was paid annual leave on top, this was several years ago though. I can post the wording from the contract if it would help.

Thanks

[atticus]

Have you thought of asking why you are not being paid £20 per hour?

If you have, what explanation was given?

[robgoals]

They said I am being paid£20/hour that is made up of£18/hour plus the annual leave pay. I was asking as to me the contract sounds like I would be paid the annual leave on top of the hourly wage.

[ULA]

Zero hour contract workers are entitled to paid time off work. As with any rolled up holiday pay, it is technically illegal to use rolled up holiday pay for zero hour contract workers, although many businesses still do so in order to simplify holiday payments.

Is the hourly rate you are being paid and the holiday pay shown as separate lines on your payslip?

You may need to post up the specific clauses on your pay and holiday pay. Make sure when you do there is not identifying information for your or your employer.

[robgoals]

Thanks ULA. Yes the hourly rate and the holiday pay are shown as separate lines on the payslip.

The relevant sections about renumeration and holidays from the contract are below.

REMUNERATION
Your wage is £20 per hour, which will accrue from day to day and is paid monthly, by credit transfer directly into your nominated bank account or building society account. If you change the account you wish your payments to be made into it is important that you give us as much notice as possible to be able to accommodate the change. All payments will be subject to normal deductions for tax and national insurance contributions. You will be given a payslip each pay period detailing how your pay has been calculated.

ANNUAL LEAVE
Our holiday year runs from the 1st April and ends on 31st March each year. Your annual holiday entitlement is 5.6 working weeks (pro-rata for part-time employees) in a full holiday year. If your employment with us commences part way through a holiday year, you will receive a pro-rata holiday entitlement. Your holiday pay will be based on your average earnings over the previous 52 weeks worked.

Your holiday entitlement includes the following public/bank holidays:

New Year’s Day Spring Bank Holiday
Good Friday Summer Bank Holiday
Easter Monday Christmas Day
Early May Bank Holiday Boxing Day

A payment in lieu of untaken holidays will be made for any holidays which you have accrued during the current holiday year but have not taken at the time of your termination of employment.

If you have taken more holiday than your accrued entitlement at the date your employment terminates, we shall be entitled to deduct from your final remuneration payment, one day’s pay for each day taken in excess of your accrued entitlement.

Holiday entitlement at the date your employment terminates will be calculated as 1/52nd of your annual entitlement for each full week worked from the start of the holiday year up to your effective date of termination.

If you do not work the notice stipulated in this document, then any holidays which you have accrued in excess of the statutory minimum, will be forfeited and will not be paid. We may recover any holidays paid in excess of the statutory minimum from your final pay or any other monies which we may owe you.

[ULA]

Rolled up holiday pay should be paid in addition to your normal salary. From the clause entitled Remuneration I would interpret this to mean your wage is £20 per hour and there is no reference that this includes the 12.07% uplift for holiday pay.

I would suggest you go back to your employer and explain that the contract as written does not state that your hourly rate is inclusive of holiday pay and see what response you receive.

[robgoals]

Thank you very much. I'll raise it with them.

[robgoals]

I asked my employer and they've replied with the following -
"I can confirm that you have been paid at the correct pay rate for the shifts worked, and unfortunately due to an HR administrative error, your contract contained the incorrect rate of pay.

I apologise for any inconvenience. HR will issue you with a correct contract version."

Contractually should they be paying me at £20/hour for the time before I sign the new contract? Or is this a reasonable change for them to make?

Thanks.

[ULA]

Thank you @rogoals for moving your post. Anyone who contributes to a thread will be notified each time there is a new post even if remains inactive for a few days/weeks.

Administrative errors do ok we are all human. Your contract should have set out that the £20 was made up of £18 per hour salary and £2 per hour holiday pay and that I guess is where they made the admin error and to rectify that they will re-issue the contract correctly worded.

When did you start working at the company, I presume relatively recently and was it your first payslip when you noticed this?

[robgoals]

It's been a few months. I'm paid a month late, so paid for January work at the end of Feb. Its electronic payslips and my login didn't work. I didn't get round to checking as the pay was not miles off what was expected.
It's about £1200 different I think. A fair amount of money to me. I'm also going to be leaving the company in the next month or two. It feels unfair as in the interview the rate was £20/hour and then it said the same in the contract. I should have picked it up at the first payslip but it would still have been £800 less, as I'd have worked two months at that point. £2/hour less x 48 hours/week for two months.

[ULA]

I presume you received your payslip for work done in Jan in advance of you actually being paid at the end of Feb? Your initial post would seem that you picked up this issue quite quickly if you started in Jan

I would however point out that there was clearly the intent by the company that your salary would be £18 plus holiday pay of £2 per hour as this has been clearly set out in your payslip and I presume all payslips. This would point to an admin error in the precise wording of your contract.

Was hourly rate discussed at any interview you had?

[robgoals]

Hi,

Sorry, started December, first payslip end of Jan. It would actually be more like £1600 now.
In the interview it was £20/hour, I assumed holidays on top and obviously the contract confirmed this.

[ULA]

Then you may be able to go back to your employer and say it is unlawful deduction of wages for which you could make a claim. Support this with the fact that at no point in the interview nor in the contract did it state that the £20 was made up of £18 salary and £2 holiday pay per hour. At the very least ask then to pay you at that rate until they came back and confirmed it was an admin error after you had queried this.