Help with unfairness at work

Shopaholic101

Hi, I'm a long time lurker and short time poster!

I hope you can help...I have a question which I can't find the answer to on our HR pages and wondered if there is a standard answer.

Basically I took a grad role 3 years ago, took a new role after it ended, then took another new one (all promotions) 6 months after that. However, I have stayed on my current (grad) contract and payscale since starting. As a result I am about to get a pay cut when I change contract.

This because at the moment, I get a london 'allowance' on top of my overall pay, then I get a percentage of my actual pay as a profit share.

e.g. £20k basic, £3k allowance, £2k profit share (say 10%), total: £25K
their new plan: £22k basic with london weighting in my pay, total: £24,500.

So my question is; can they do this?

Obviously I'm grateful I have a job, so if they can do this then I will stay quiet, but if not I might question it.

Flyboy152

Shopaholic101 wrote: »

Hi, I'm a long time lurker and short time poster!

I hope you can help...I have a question which I can't find the answer to on our HR pages and wondered if there is a standard answer.

Basically I took a grad role 3 years ago, took a new role after it ended, then took another new one (all promotions) 6 months after that. However, I have stayed on my current (grad) contract and payscale since starting. As a result I am about to get a pay cut when I change contract.

This because at the moment, I get a london 'allowance' on top of my overall pay, then I get a percentage of my actual pay as a profit share.

e.g. £20k basic, £3k allowance, £2k profit share (say 10%), total: £25K
their new plan: £22k basic with london weighting in my pay, total: £24,500.

So my question is; can they do this?

Obviously I'm grateful I have a job, so if they can do this then I will stay quiet, but if not I might question it.

How many employees does the company have, how many are men and how many are women? How many others are in a similar position?

Shopaholic101

170k+ employees and 2 people in this position (or possibly just me, but I suspect there's one other).

Flyboy152

Shopaholic101 wrote: »

170k+ employees and 2 people in this position (or possibly just me, but I suspect there's one other).

I am assuming you mean one hundred and seventy and not one hundred and seventy thousand.

Has anyone else in the company started in similar circumstances and had similar career paths as you, but have benefit from better pay wards? Has their performance been similar.

Shopaholic101

No I meant 170,000 (globally), this is a large corporate... with no help available from HR.

All non-my-division grads have had a role change where the division gave them a new contract and pay scale, but I just got moved and was not rewarded... promised and promised but nothing has arrived until this.

Hammyman

You need to negotiate better. Whilst they feel they can get away with not paying you more they will do.

Shopaholic101

Hammyman wrote: »

You need to negotiate better. Whilst they feel they can get away with not paying you more they will do.

If that's all it boils down to then I am happy to negotiate, but I'd like to know first if they are legally (or contractually or similarly) unable to give me a paycut and therefore I am just arguing for a payrise. I feel in this employment climate that I am not in the negotiating position and they may just choose to fire me or something.

CFC

Why is your contract changing when it has not done so before? Has your grad. contract made perm or was it extended via a fixed term contract? Have you performed less well than anticipated, if your perm contract will be on less money than a grad/trainee contract? Did you apply for this new role - if so, this is the amount of money they are offering you to undertake it - what will happen if you turn ths new role down and stay in your current role on your current contract?

maninthestreet

How can you be losing the profit-share component of your renumeration if you are still working for the same employer??

Flyboy152

Shopaholic101 wrote: »

If that's all it boils down to then I am happy to negotiate, but I'd like to know first if they are legally (or contractually or similarly) unable to give me a paycut and therefore I am just arguing for a payrise. I feel in this employment climate that I am not in the negotiating position and they may just choose to fire me or something.

Is there no union represenation?

Flyboy152

maninthestreet wrote: »

How can you be losing the profit-share component of your renumeration if you are still working for the same employer??

That is quite easy, the profit share component is discretionary and the employer can withdraw it when they want (within certain procedures).