annual pay rise being held up by union

zapster

Hi All,

Can you give me some advice on this one:

My employer is currently in slow discussions with the union about our annual pay rise + merge companies TC's. The annual pay rise should of been paid out in June 2006. It is now November and we have yet to hear about when we are going to get this annual pay rise, fairs fair to my employer in the past they do backpay the money, but here comes my main problem:-

I'm lucky enough to be given a promotions and payrise but this is being held back due to the annual pay rise not being finalize between the union and my employer. Ok hopefully I should get the annual pay rise backpaid but I could do with my promotional payrise now, as I'm looking to buy a house.

I'm not a member of the union, which I don't know is a good thing or not.. But I don't know where I stand. As in theory I could say that my company is holding back my career development. Also I'm losing out on interest, on the extra money they should be pay in for annual pay rise, (they are earning this :rolleyes: )

Please could you give me some advice on what I should do.

Thanks

Glass_Half_Empty??

I would join the union straight away. You can get free advise from them for one, and with your concerns if you don't have a union guy to represent you then your company will probably ignore you. Union men have aa lot of persuasion with these type of things. And when it is made official through these guys there is no lying or comeback to you as it has all been "official". A union is usually 2 pounds a week, this isn't much for the work they do

CFC

OK you have one big fat problem here. The problem is that you are NOT entitled to a payrise unless specified in your contract. Nobody is. Just because a company has given one previously means no reason to assume that it will necessarily happen every year.

If your promotion has resulted in a change to your contract (such as a letter confirming you in your new role or appointment or job title such as 'chicken sexer's right hand man') then your new pay rate should be specified in your letter as well as the date that it is operative from.

If it's only a 'kind of' promotion which has resulted in no job title change, then you'll just have to wait till the union has finished.

It also depends on whether it's pretty much a fully unionised union workplace. You could approach your employer and say that you want individual bargaining rather than being party to the union bargaining. I think from your description though, you'd be better off just waiting it out.

ohreally

zapster wrote:

Please could you give me some advice on what I should do.

Your employer has a recognition agreement with one or more trade unions who negotiate on on a collective bargaining basis to ensure all aspects of employment with that employer are negotiated for all rather than individuals, so first off join a recognised trade union and contribute to the work which is being done and funded on your behalf by your due paying colleagues.
The employer is unlikely to talk to you on an individual basis as this may breach the terms of the recognition agreement and could cause considerable problems between the trade unions and management (not to mention friction between yourself and your colleagues).
If you have an outstanding pay uplift because of the promotion raise this with your workplace reps after joining the union - this should be easily resolved.

Oh, and to respond to "annual pay rise being held up by union", it takes two sides to negotiate and the unions involved are likely to be member led, so it is the rank and file membership who will be holding back on agreement - no doubt for better conditions for all to enjoy.

CIS

Are you a civil servant ?, we used to have the problem where it was sometimes xmas before we actually got a pay award sorted.

clairec79

Sounds like civil service, and the one time the union said they negoiated a 'better deal' I lost £500 from it - they had published the original offer but regardless of whether you were in the union you couldn't take the first offer

leftieM

There's nothing you can do. Just accept the situation. You'll get the money eventually.