In June 2004, I starting working for Boots The Chemist as a pharmacist, chosing to work on the Isle of Wight - tempted by the "Island Bonus" to encourage pharmacists to work on the Isle which was hard to recruite for, and to make up for extra expenses of living on the Isle.
This "Island bonus" was £4000 per annum, paid monthly (about £333 less tax) on top of the hourly wage pay of £16.60 per hour before tax. The amount was decided upon and allocated from April 2004 and to be paid monthly when working as a pharmacist in a pharmacy on the Isle of Wight, to be paid from the date of starting employment in that financial year.
On pay day on the 20th of each month I never received my "Island Bonus", I rang numerous times, usually being told "It had missed this months cut-off and will be in next months pay", eventually by January, having received no bonus for about 7 months, I was sick and tired of this so we arranged to transfer to the mainland. I finally got my "Island Bonus" in February 2005 - 8 months late!!! No interest, apology or anything.
By this time I had complained so much and fallen out with the wage/rota person, I was given no support and had to work 10 hour days - no extra pay was payable, and towards the end "Time in Lieu" I was accuring was pointless as I was leaving the island and couldn't transfer it to another Boots Area so it was lost.
At one stage I closed the pharmacy for one hour at lunch to reduce my hours so that it was closer to the hours I would only be paid for, after a few days I was informed that there was a special "lunch-time" wage payment over and above my standard wages that I could be paid without impacting on the pharmacy wage budget, and therefore had to open again all day 9am to 6pm/7pm without a break.
I thought moving onto the mainland would be a good move as there would be less of a shortage of pharmacists, so no overtime without pay or TIL would be required of me, but I was wrong.