Paid below the National Minimum Wage!

[goneaway]

This just goes to show how low Royal Mail has sunk as an employer. I joined a decade ago and the money was reasonably good for the job at that time. Fast forward to today and I received a letter from Royal Mail Group Payroll, saying following a recent assessment, "we identified that a small number of weekly paid employees were paid under the National Minimum Wage in some pay periods between April 2025 and March 2026". It goes on to say a repayment of nearly £1200 is due.

This is despite working some overtime most weeks (maybe that contributed, as it is paid at a lower rate than the normal horly rate) and receiving an enhanced payment - RRIS (Recruitment and Retention and Inflation Supplement) which is paid in areas where recruitment is difficult. It's not even as if I am "Post-2022", who we know are paid at a lower hourly rate.

Has anyone else received such a letter? Have Royal Mail broken the law by allowing this, or are they absolved because they will be paying the underpayment back at the end of this month? Is any interest due? Any other recourse?

No wonder the majority of us were denied the opportunity to buy additional annual leave this year!

Oh, and there's not a word of apology in the letter, not even a hint of one!

[A2B]

I've seen mention of repayments on the Robin app.

Struggling to think how this company can get any worse but got a feeling they will show us

[Hitcher]

AI response: https://share.google/aimode/q8E2tGsV5bOTVVmD6

[Perseus]

It's got to be something to do with pension payments etc coming off before tax surely?

[loyalsnail]

An apology...? It's free money on a technicality...

[Martin Walsh]

There will be circle 9000 individuals on old contracts who will receive this payment.

All of those entitled to this is individuals who are on an attendance pattern which means they work more hours per week in order to get a week or weeks off. This applies to Wallingtons or other Banked duties.

The HMRC who audit companies on minimum wages calculates your pay after salary sacrifice ( ie pension) and then divides it by the hours you have worked to see if you are below £12.71.

On a Wallington you normally work 43 hours each week.

Royal Mail to avoid being in breach of the national minimum wage have reviewed all these duties going back to April 2025 and where an individual is below the minimum wage will pay compensation.

[goneaway]

There will be circle 9000 individuals on old contracts who will receive this payment.

All of those entitled to this is individuals who are on an attendance pattern which means they work more hours per week in order to get a week or weeks off. This applies to Wallingtons or other Banked duties.

The HMRC who audit companies on minimum wages calculates your pay after salary sacrifice ( ie pension) and then divides it by the hours you have worked to see if you are below £12.71.

On a Wallington you normally work 43 hours each week.

Royal Mail to avoid being in breach of the national minimum wage have reviewed all these duties going back to April 2025 and where an individual is below the minimum wage will pay compensation.

Thanks for the explanation, Martin, it makes a bit more sense now. I'm on a Wallington.

I feel that Royal Mail have been rather disingenuous in stating that only a "small number" of employees have been affected. 9000 isn't a small number in my book! I don't have figures but isn't that nearing a tenth of the "legacy" workforce?

It's also an indictment of how far Royal Mail relative pay for the majority of the workforce has fallen so badly compared to minimum wage levels when routine salary sacrifice options are enough to tip the balance into below NMR territory on average.

For the first time this year, I was looking forward to the opportunity to "buy" some additional annual leave, but that was dashed as soon as I applied, due to this cliff edge.

New staff are paid even less, no wonder the company have a recruitment crisis. I think I know why they are paid monthly now, so there's less chance that the company have to make any back payments to those who work on Wallington and other innovative work patterns.

What a mess.

[goneaway]

And Martin: do you know if the company are planning to do anything in the future to avoid getting into this mess year after year? Perhaps the stingy pay awards have resulted in the company actually paying out more with all these back payments than if they had actually awarded a bit more each year so there would be enough of a cushion to avoid anyone falling into this trap which results in these back payments?

[TopperGas]

Given nothing has changed regarding Wally weeks & out hourly pay will this also be an issue for this tax year?

Plus how will the new DM26 rotas work where Wally weeks are still being offered?

[A2B]

Given nothing has changed regarding Wally weeks & out hourly pay will this also be an issue for this tax year?

Plus how will the new DM26 rotas work where Wally weeks are still being offered?

Wallington is on the list of options but I believe it's only available if your office already runs the system.

Another question is how will Sunday workers fit into any rota?

Going back to the original topic, guy at work received the letter and one thing that I found strange is that it says they are unable to provide a breakdown of the payment calculation! Surely that should be the very thing that should be included

[GRS]

Good point RE : Sunday working. In our office we have 30, 32, 37 & 40 hour contracts, apart from the 37 hour people all the other groups have people who work Sunday. How the hell is that going to fit in with any duty pattern.? It doesn’t even work out now as it means that the Sunday workers have to have 2 days off in the week thus exasperating the daily problems of being understaffed anyway. No one seems to have thought of how Sunday workers are going to be accommodated into the new duty patterns.

[Thommo44]

An apology...? It's free money on a technicality...

It’s not free money though, if it was you wouldn’t be getting it

[DGH]

It’s not free money though, if it was you wouldn’t be getting it

It is essentially free money. They are paid for their normal week when they are taking their accumulated days off. It's just a quirk of the minimum wage legislation that means they are getting extra (and it is extra) money.
While it's hardly equitable, it does at least mean RM are being screwed for once (albeit for a tiny amount, relatively speaking).