Incorrect salaries offered - contract breach? - General - HR in Schools and Academies

1 Incorrect salaries offered - contract breach?

Jane | 0 Posts

11 Jun, 2020 13:23

Background - pre-Covid, the school governors had agreed a 1.5% cost of living pay increase and all teachers' salary scales were to lift by this amount from September. A lot of new starters for September were recruited pre-Covid and the salaries they have been offered included the 1.5%.

Fast forward to Covid times. Governors have now decided that there will be no pay increase in September due to challenging times.

Our Bursar wants to rescind the offers made and offer salaries at the previous scale rate. I think this is a breach of contract. What is the risk if we do this? Or could we try to do this, explaining the context and if people don't agree, honour the new salary (this messes with the pay scales but we could offer the difference as a one off allowance for the coming year?

Advice gratefully received.

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David | 0 Posts

11 Jun, 2020 14:09

Hi Jane

Your school has now made a legally-binding contract which to seek to rescind would potentially result in all manner of legal complications, let alone its likely effects on morale and motivation and your school's reputation as a decent employer. Is it really worth embarking on all that in order to save a measly 1.5% of a few individuals' pay?
Surely the Governors' decision can still generally be implemented?
(Have to say that even the most ruthless of MDs / CEOs that I've personally worked with over the years wouldn't think that on balance this was worth doing. And that the thread title is inaccurate in that there was no incorrectness or mistake about the salaries offered and accepted: the intentions of both parties to the contract were entirely clear at the time, so a legally-binding contract resulted.)
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