Hi,
I write this as I am a little P*ssed off so please bear with my ramblings, there is a point to this!
I recieved news today that my job will now basically be less enjoyable and for the pleasure of this I will also have to take a paycut. I realise there is a credit crunch happening but I work as a contractor to the Royal Navy doing an important job that culminates in saving peoples lives, both servive and civillian. The forces are not run as a business (yet) so they are fairly uneffected by the credit crunch, so why am I being forced to take a paycut you may ask??? The reason is this.....I work for a civillian contractor and they are always looking for ways to save money to keep the fat cats and the share holders happy and wealthy, at the workers (my) expence. I know for a fact that the company I work for gets paid £50 an hour to employ me and what do I get....£10 before tax. I think they have lost their way as far as fairness is concerned, but that seems to be a sign of the times. The richer get richer and the poorer get poorer. What happened to treating workers fairly? Surely a good workforce is a happy workforce!? I dont want to sound like a communist (but some of their values are making sence to me now) but this state has turned into a comsumer driven rip off and we are the ones that are paying for it. All I want is a fair wage for an honest days work, I am not interested in being exploited. After all what is the management/shareholders/fat cats/hangers on worth if the basic job at the bottom line is not done?? We are carrying too many people and the structure of modern business is too top heavy. We are told what is happening and if you fight back then you are labeled as a trouble maker and your card is marked by your employers. I am not a trouble maker, I am just an average person with a sence of what is fair and what is not. Simple. The more time that I spend lining other peoples pockets makes me realise that I am being taken as a mug and it is time to escape from it, if others are happy being treated like this then they are welcome to it. Time to move on and do something where I get a sence of satisfaction and a fair wage at the end of the day. Im not out to make a fast buck and that seems to put me in the minority so if you are reading this and do not see my point of view then thats fine, im happy to be a rebel and to persue my dreams safe in the knowlege that what I do is for ME, not to benefit some shareholder sitting on a beach somewhere at my expence!
Rant over.................!
Anthony.
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Anthony
ReplyDeleteemotives aside for a second and yes I know it's frustrating, can your contract employer actually do this? If you have a written contract, whether it be time specific or not, the hourly rate you are paid should be quoted. We're talking about the direct contract you have with the civilian contractor.
In order to vary that contract rate both parties need to agree to amend the contract. Basically if you don't agree they can't. What you need to be careful about is what, in employment law terms, constitutes agreement and doing nothing will mean just that.
Even if you don't have a written contract (though if not, why not!) you can argue that you have are contracting at a certain rate and you do not agree to a reduction.
If your contract goes a little further and constitutes a full-time contract of employment (i.e. you are an employee of this company, not a contractor) again they cannot reduce your wage without your consent.
We had something similar happen with Rik's contract. He's in a similar situation where our company (TSL) contracts with a company (Koios) who then contracts with other companies all the way up the line to the MoD who pay for all these contractors. The MoD are charged by Hewlett Packard who have, in the past few months, been reducing both their employee and contractor rates whilst still charging the MoD the same amount of money (get that!). When they tried to reduce the rate Koios get paid, which would reduce the rate we got paid both ourselves and Koios said no, we're on fixed term contracts at a fixed rate and you can't just change them. HP's attitude was then okay but when contract is up for renewal we will only be accepting reduced rate: to which of course we said fine we won't renew. The upshot of various wrangling is that our contract has been extended on exactly the same rates as the previous one - I suspect Rik's indispensability has something to do with this - but the point I'm trying to make is that you don't have to just accept these things. Talk to your direct employer / contractor and see if anything better can be agreed. If you are a valuable employee they will recognise the worth of keeping you on.
The overall problem is that the recession has turned an employee market very much into a employer's one: and some employers are flexing their muscles on the back of the "we need to cut costs" bandwagon.
sorry to go on a bit: hope this helps.
alex xx
Hey Alex - it's Sonia here. Just to say firstly thanks for the response - much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThe paycut isn't really a paycut technically. It's the removal of an allowance for extra duties, which they've decided they don't need the team to do any more. It IS a cost cutting exercise - it'll save the bosses around £12k p.a. It'll cost us around £100 a month. But politically they've presented in a 'we're doing you a favour because we value you so much so you don't have to do the extra hassle stuff any more' way. We all know it's nonsense though.
This has (we think) come about because of the battle put forward to actually get what's in the contract - i.e. paid overtime. The company refuse to pay it and offer TOIL. The contract says they'll pay it. They've been marked as trouble makers because they want what they're technically entitled to, and have been fighting for it. The powers that be are trying to save money (they get a bonus of they do) and won't pay it. Therefore the team have now lost this allowance but it's covered up as a 'we value you' exercise. That's a very basic overview and there's more to it - but there you go. Not sure there's anything we can do, apart from plan the escape route!
Sx
Hiya; well as you know I'm by no means an employment lawyer but if there is something in contract which should be paid, and which isn't (or hasn't been) then yes Anthony's team have very valid cause for complaint. Even allowances / expenses - if they have been paid historically as part of the contract - can (I think) be considered part of the wage/rate and can't be cut without approval.
ReplyDeleteIf, however, they're going down the route of we just won't ask for those extra hours which are in our discretion to ask for, you might have more of a problem: and of course it all depends how much you want to fight and how much influence the team have. For example, if the team went in and said "okay we're serving notice to terminate the contract" how worried would your contractor be ..... it can be a good bargaining tool: can also be very risky! So yes an escape plan is always a good back-up......