Employment Legal Advice : Working Hours ?

Reader Question : I am working for an employer on a salary of £15k ayear for a 45 hour week, on average i am doing a 50 to 55 hour week which is 260 hour plus a year more. Does my employer have the rights to do this or should i be intitled to days in leiu or extra payment.

Our Expert  Employment Lawyer Philip Landau- responds

Under the Working Time Regulations, you should not be working more than 48 hours a week unless you have specifically contracted out of this in your employment contract. If you have not contracted out, then you cannot be forced to work these hours and if you are dismissed or have other disciplinary action taken against you because you are exerting this right, then you may have a claim for automatic unfair dismissal. If you  have simply agreed to work the extra hours without any understanding that you would be paid a higher salary, then there is little you can do. You may then want to give consideration to reducing your hours accordingly.

If you have seek employment advice from  Philip go here

Can My Boss Impose a Pay Cut?

We’ve got wind at work that the company might impose a pay cut on us. I’ve worked as a credit controller for several years, and have been in the company pension scheme most of that time. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

Sam writes:

If you are forced to take a pay cut, then it will require a new contract of employment. If your employer were just to impose a pay cut out of the blue, then that would be breach of contract. My understanding of the law is that if you refused to take the pay cut, and were subsequently made redundant, you would be able to pursue your employer for unfair dismissal. You must also understand that a pay cut affects every aspect of your life – from your tax banding to your pension contributions. If you take a 10% cut from your pension contributions, you are seriously jeopardising your future wealth. My advice is to get everything documented and in writing.  Ask for written guarantees about increased future payments of your pension in return for a pay cut in the short-term, for example. You and other members of your team might even think about proposing a bonus scheme to recoup some of your lost pay, for example. After all, if you’re in credit control, you are one of the people in the company who is critical in improving cash flow and reducing debtors.

Who Will Pay My Exam Fees?

I am a part-qualified accountant working in a publicly-listed company, and have been there for eighteen months. The organisation has made some compulsory redundancies in the last few months. In my contract, it stipulates that my exam fees will be paid for the by the company. However, I have been asked by my boss if I will pay these myself, as the departmental budget has been cut. What should I do?

JL, London

Sam writes:

Frankly, my blood boils when I read about incidents like this. Your employer will be in breach of contract if they don’t pay your fees. If you’re in an accounting department and your boss is an accountant, then he or she must know this as well. What appalls me is the underlying and unstated threat of potential redundancy hanging over you unless you capitulate. From an organisational point of view it’s sheer idiocy – it is the role of a manager to nurture talent for use by the organisation. If you were to leave over this incident, the organisation has lost a valuable and experienced employee. And this is over an amount of money that must surely be trivial to the organisation (although significant for an employee). The good news is that you’ve been there over a year, so you’re protected by employment law.

I would stick to my guns and get them to pay for your exams and any other professional fees or costs that are in your contract. If it were to come to redundancy, you would have grounds for constructive dismissal if you could produce evidence that you had been singled out because you’d not acceded to his/her demands.

I’d be fairly sure that the HR department doesn’t know about this wheeze (being a publicly-listed company, I’m sure you have an HR department). The way I would play it would be to tell your boss that this would require a rewrite of your contract, and that you would therefore have to discuss it with the HR department. The HR department would realise exactly what was going on. Either your boss would back down at the mere mention of HR involvement, or they would put your boss right. If your bluff is called, you can tell HR that your contract states your fees are paid. I’d be pretty amazed if you were made redundant with any of that on the record. I do hope that we’ve seen the worst of the redundancies in your company. Good luck.

Contract Accountant Job vs Temporary Accountant Job

I’ve recently seen contract accountant jobs advertised. What’s the difference between a contract accountant jobs and a temporary accountant job?

Sam replies:

At first glance, you might think there’s little difference between the two. But there is, and it;s a subtle one. A temporary accountant job tends to be arranged via an agency. That means that the agency is your employer and that’s who your contract of employment is with, including your rate and other terms and conditions. They have their own rate and terms and conditions with the company they sell your services to. Their profit is the difference between the two. When it comes to things like holiday entitlements, it’s the agency who will pay you.

Contract Accountant jobs are quite different, although they are often advertised as temporary jobs. In this instance, your contract of employment will be directly with the client. You will negotiate your rate and other terms and conditions directly with your employer. More often than not, these kinds of jobs are very senior, and far better paid than any equivalent temporary position. The reason is that the company/client will be expecting a greater commitment from you, and daily – rather than hourly – rate.

This kind of relationship is best administered by way of a limited company, and it may be a condition of employment. This is for your own protection, since as a sole trader you would be exposing yourself to unlimited liability should anything go awry. Despite recent legislation, there are still considerable tax advantages to this kind of setup. If you’re a good networker, this could be the first step in setting up your own firm or partnership. Remember to get the appropriate legal advice. Your professional body should be your first port of call.

Accountant Owed Money by Employer

I started working for a company in April 2008 and after five days had a problem with childcare for my four-year-old, so had to reluctantly leave the job.

I am a single parent and they have since refused to pay me five days’ pay which I feel is owed to me. Is this right? I have sent several letters, made lots of phone calls and e-mails to them but to no avail.

If I’m not entitled to this money, I shall go away and lick my wounds but I feel so miffed with their attitude that I feel I want to get this money more than ever now. Can you help please?

Sam writes:

It’s all down to your contract. They should pay you for your five day’s work. If you had a signed contract for the job, then you should also be paid for the notice period stipulated in that contract.

Accountant Probation Period Dismissal

Three months ago I have been offered a Treasury Accountant permanent position with three months probation period. During these three months I have been constantly criticised by my boss. I have preformed all tasks assigned well but there was a problem with consolidated cash flow based on numbers send by local controllers which at some periods would be negative.

During this time my boss was short with me (that is the term she described) on many occasions and told me that this was because I had glazing look on my face while she talked to me. She also by her own admission stated that she can be a bit bullish. In my opinion she bullied me all the time and spoke to me in very unkind manner. On another occasion she sent me an email asking me to read project description and see if I could understand the contents because if I could understand that so should banks. I felt like a complete idiot. I have lost all my confidence and really felt low and now I feel depressed.

On the last day of my probation she called me into the office to announce that she will not proceed with permanent employment and I can go home.

Do I have any rights?

Sam replies:

Whilst JustaccountancyJobs is not able to offer legal advice and you should consult your own solicitor if you think fit, we can give some pointers as to your rights. Firstly, up to 12 months employees have very few rights in terms of unfair / wrongful dismissal.  In principle employees cannot claim unfair dismissal unless they have one year’s continuous service with your company. However, if you feel that your dismissal could be related to any form of unlawful discrimination then you can lodge an Employment Tribunal claim at any time. It would be advisable to get the company to put in writing why they have terminated your employment. You also should have contractual rights to paid notice. Employers also have a ‘duty of care’ to their employees and this includes dealing with bullying at work – if you felt this was appropriate. If you feel that this has taken place, you would need to take a diary of events and any other supporting evidence eg e-mails etc to a solicitor to advise you on whether you have a claim. A website you might want to look at for all of this is:  www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment