Travel to new place of work

Fatpants

Hi All

I joinned my current company two years ago after being made redundant. Jobs at the time were hard to come by and I accepted a role in Central London (Im a PA). After six months my team moved to Surrey and I offered to move with them as it was much closer to home (although they didnt know this).

After 18months in Surrey my team has now disintegrated and I have been asked to move to another team, however this role is back in London.

When I moved to Surrey my terms of employment and place of work were updated to the Surrey address but my salary remained unchanged.

Moving to Central London will cost me an extra £120 per month in travel and the journey is a 'hellish' one (car, tram, train then walk) I was wondering whether I'm within my rights to ask for a pay
increase towards the cost of the extra travel expenses and whether a company would generally do this.?
Currently, if i have to travel to London for meetings I can expense this back.

There is nothing in my contract or handbook regarding this.

If I dont go to London I suspect I will be made redundant anyway so dont really have much choice. I dont relish the thought of trying to find another job in the current climate...

thanks and regards,

MrsManda

Does your company offer a relocation package?
Though it's not compulsory many companies provide excess mileage expenses for a fixed period after the move.
Are you moving back to where you worked before relocating to Surrey?
To be honest, you were happy to work there at the same salary as you are still on so the employer may take the view that there's no need for you to get payrise.

for information on relocation have a look at the link below
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/EmploymentContractsAndConditions/DG_10028541

hyperfunk_d

Unfortunately, it is at companies discretion whether they give you a pay increase or offer to give you cash towards your travel.

Businesses relocate very often - one of my earlier places of work moved from London out to Essex, which inconvenienced a lot of people, but they did not offer to help anyone with the cost of their journey.

Perhaps just speak to someone at work about it and see if they can help - if they value your employment they may be willing to do something, but they are not obliged to, so dont be surprised if they dont!

Good luck

jazzyman01

Depends on what you want. If your contract does not include a mobility clause then you can decline to move back to London. However, the option then would be redundancy.

The alternative is to go through the additional cost with your boss or HR and see if they will pay towards the increases. What they might do is agree to a reducing payment, ie start off at say £100 and after a year move to £50 and the year after drop down further.

Of course they might say that you benefited from a London salary when you moved to your current job and it is swings and roundabouts.

Does this affect other staff members? What are they doing?

Oldernotwiser

Seeing that the job you accepted was originally in London, it's hard to see that you have a case for additional expenses when they move back to where you started out.

Hammyman

Fatpants wrote: »

Hi All

I joinned my current company two years ago after being made redundant. Jobs at the time were hard to come by and I accepted a role in Central London (Im a PA). After six months my team moved to Surrey and I offered to move with them as it was much closer to home (although they didnt know this).

After 18months in Surrey my team has now disintegrated and I have been asked to move to another team, however this role is back in London.

When I moved to Surrey my terms of employment and place of work were updated to the Surrey address but my salary remained unchanged.

Moving to Central London will cost me an extra £120 per month in travel and the journey is a 'hellish' one (car, tram, train then walk) I was wondering whether I'm within my rights to ask for a pay
increase towards the cost of the extra travel expenses and whether a company would generally do this.?
Currently, if i have to travel to London for meetings I can expense this back.

There is nothing in my contract or handbook regarding this.

One could argue that you are in exactly the same position as you were before it all moved to Surrey so you're actually no worse off than you initially were.

Hammyman

MrsManda wrote: »

Does your company offer a relocation package?

For what? The OP lived in Surrey when they started the job in Central London and the OP is now going to be living in Surrey and working in Central London so quite how they'd be entitled to a relocation fee for being back where they were originally is beyond me.

SueC_2

Unless you acceped a salary decrease when you moved to the more convenient Surrey location I think you'd be on a pretty sticky wicket to expect them to give you an increase to go back to where you originally were.