Equal Salary

edinburgh12

working for local council.I get about a £1000 less than same grade staff.we are doing same work same shift and same place.union have told me their shift allowance is life time protected which new staff is not getting.As new staffs contract is with new deal which you sign for.I was not aware of signing contract that same grade staff are paid extra.(as cleaner womens did not know that male staff are paid more than womens now they r getting back dated pay)I feel all staff on same level should be treadted same.Any suggestion and advice will be very much appriciated.thanks

Andy_Hamilton

Sorry but life is not fair. My work mate is on £7K more than me. Someone who just joined the company is on £500 more. I had to train them both.
The only way to make it equal is to leave!!

edinburgh12

You are working for lot of less.I will leave after you,cos you r no lot less salary.thanks for your kind advice.I never thought that.

winalot

I don't think that staff are paid same at same level in a lot of places certainly not where i work - i wrote to hr where i am and said was considering an equal pay claim and they upped my salary a fair bit - though it's still fairly compariitively low it's a lot better - maybe you should try that - they can only say no (and probably will ! ) but there is the offchance they may make you an offer if they think you will carry through any union complaint . certainly where i work (gvmt) you tend to need your line manager to back you for any further dialogue but give it a go. hr people have prevously advised me that the time to negotiate salary along the payband is when you are offered the job but before you have accepted it.

LindsayO

If it's all new staff, are there other people in the same situation as you, maybe in a different department even, but getting less pay for the same job. Maybe you could get together and go to the union (if you are all members) and say you feel the same way. Writing to HR is another option, or maybe if none of that works, contacting the Evening News, with all the money being spent (wasted?) on the trams, it might be the kind of story they would print

Freebie_Manor

Hi I'm assuming you live in or around Edinburgh, there has been a huge job evaluation review in local government, which has meant all staff have had to sign new contracts or quit. The unions were very heavily involved with this, and there were strikes etc. The back pay could be where staff were upgraded to reflect duties under the reevaluation scheme but I think its more likely the annual pay amount you are hearing about. The annual cost of living pay awards in local gov always take months to agree so it ends up as back pay between April & Oct. Some staff gained eg extra hols less hours and some lost salary, although it or parts of it may be protected for a while. Its very much a case of many organisations are cutting costs by reducing benefits to new staff by using new contracts. Sorry but I think what you've been told is valid and its take it or leave it. The councils are generally better employers as its likely pensioned wages and they treat you better in that you cant be laid off just because they loose contracts like you would be if working for a cleaning contractor. Good Luck

geordie_joe

I worked for a government department and a local council. In both places staff were paid according to how long they had been doing the job.

This was because each grade had pay bands, you started on the lowest band and each year you jumped up a band. So someone who had been doing the job two years would get more pay than someone in their first year. etc. etc. until you reached the highest band for that grade.

The reason for this is you get paid for your experience in doing that job, not just for being at work. As an example, a person in their first year may come across a problem and not know how to deal with it. They may take an hour to sort it out, where as a person with four years experience will have come across the same problem several times and be able to solve it in a couple of minutes and then get on with something else.

So, the person who has more experience will be more productive and also pass on their knowledge and experience to others. So they get paid more.

Well, that's the theory anyway, but I know it is not always the fact.

Now I am back with a civilian company and everyone on the same grade gets the same pay. A person starting work for the company will get the same wages as a person at the same grade who has worked in that grade for 20 years.

The bone idle layabouts get paid the same as those who work hard all day. The women with families who do a good days work get the same pay is the 25 year old girl who spends most of the day telling people about her wedding plans, or the club she was at last night. The person who can't actually do the job, so spends most of his time either avoiding doing it, or trying to hide his mistakes gets paid the same as the people who do the job right.

Some people think it is a fair system, but many don't.

Lolliloo

our company has a similar thing going on. when you started in 19something you were entitled to service holidays based on how long you had worked there. in 2002 they scrapped this but couldnt take it away from existing employees, only to enforce it with new starters. This was all life time protected too -meaning that all old and existing employees will get that paid until they die or leave the company. New starters arent entitled to it at all. Its not a case of discrimination. Its just the company can change its policies but anyone employed at the time the policy is changed wont be affected.

You singed your contract agreeing on what was in it not knowing about the old shift allowance. But it wont say in your contract that others have different elements in theirs.

So really you cant protest it. As you will find anyone that starts from now on will get the same regardless of being male or female