employment law on decreasing salary

[Bbbananas]

My son has been told by his employers that they want to reduce his salary - by approx 4.5K a year.
Reasons for this are that (a) business is not doing so well in the current economic climate (b) he is on too high a salary for the job he does & that female admin staff are doing a similar job for less (even though he has more experience).
He is under the impression they can only decrease his salary with his permission, but they have initimated that if he refuses such a decrease he could be dismissed.

How does he stand on this issue? He did have a job title change last year but it was agreed by his then-manager that he would stay on the same salary as previously. Now there is a new manager & he feels my son is paid too much.

Any thoughts anyone? thanks.

[luxury]

Are you in the UK? if so speak to ACAS.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=14 61

[lovenut]

Get a new job it sounds like the company is going under. Who wants to be working for someone that values them and their input that little?

There are plenty of jobs out there

[redcrx]

There are a lot of companies doing similar at the moment, shorter working weeks, laying staff off, lowering pay etc etc.

Of course he can refuse to accept it, or he can request shorter hours, or they can look at redundancy packages.

Suppose it depends on how long hes been there and how bouyant the industry is at the moment as to what he should consider.

[missspeedy23]

I think as long as they give him enough notice they can change almost anything in his contract, including pay. He can then choose whether to stay or go.

The same thing happened ay my hubby's work - one of the transport supervisors was transferred back to being a driver to cut costs but they kept his salary the same - they are now talking of putting him in line with the normal drivers rate which is a cut of about �5k which I'm sure they are allowed to do.

Did he get it in writing what he agreed with the previous manager?

[daffy654]

The company have probably been told to bring the male/female wages in line with each other and it is cheaper to reduce the male staff pay than increase the female. Just because your son has more experience in the job than the female staff it doesn't mean he should be paid more than they are if the work and hours are the same.

[Bbbananas]

the hours aren't the same - they work 37, he works 40 per week.

[daffy654]

I don't think an extra 3 hours per week justifies an extra 4.5K a year wage for the same job,but that is just my personal opinion. It seems that the company concerned are looking to cut costs any way they can and unfortunately for your son his wage has been revised to help with this. I would advise him to look for other employment that pays what he is getting now.

[cassa333]

I always thought they couldn't lower your pay but they are able to not give you a pay rise untill you are equal to the other people on the payband??

[starmack]

Company sounds like chancers.

They can propose changes, within limits, but it is NOT a defence to say that another worker is doing the job for less. They are discriminating against THAT worker..and have been.

[thugulike]

If he is earning more money than staff doing similar work who are a different gender then the company is protecting itself against Equal Pay/Equal Value claims. The company must give 90 days notice if they fundamentally change the terms of the contract . Lowering pay would qualify as a fundamental change.

The company could choose to protect his pay but they should only do that for 1 year as they would fall foul of the EP/EV law again.

Job evaluation is normally used to ensure that staff are paid the appropriate rate for the job.

[therubster]

did the company ask him to change his job title or did he ask for the change himself? if the company asked him then he is entitled to the same rate of pay but if he asked for the change then they are well within their rights to drop his pay.