Receiving the same wage as the trainees!

AimeesMum_2

Apparantly one of the managers of my manager set the pay as I am not as experienced. However, on asking my manager why he had this impression she said that no one has ever come to her to ask her the level of my experience or my job duties.

The ages of the other employees vary from 30ish-60. I can only assume that I am being discriminated against because of my age as I am hard working and don't have any problems with flexibility. I work 8.30-4.30 but if the job requires that I stay later or do work from home then I do it. It's actually upset me a little. Don't really know how to move forward as I know there will be job cuts soon. With discussions with other people they say it actually puts me in a stronger position for keeping my job as they are getting a £32,000 job on a £24,000 salary and I am less likely to be made redundant because of this.

poet123

AimeesMum wrote: »

Apparantly one of the managers of my manager set the pay as I am not as experienced. However, on asking my manager why he had this impression she said that no one has ever come to her to ask her the level of my experience or my job duties.

The ages of the other employees vary from 30ish-60. I can only assume that I am being discriminated against because of my age as I am hard working and don't have any problems with flexibility. I work 8.30-4.30 but if the job requires that I stay later or do work from home then I do it. It's actually upset me a little. Don't really know how to move forward as I know there will be job cuts soon. With discussions with other people they say it actually puts me in a stronger position for keeping my job as they are getting a £32,000 job on a £24,000 salary and I am less likely to be made redundant because of this.

That shouldn't come into it, it should be determined by skills audit if you all do the same job. However,...in real life it may well be factored in. I think it safe to assume that if you rock the boat if redundancies are already mooted it will not go in your favour.:(

LittleVoice

AimeesMum - How long have you been doing this work for this employer? How long have the other people been with the employer? - LV

AimeesMum_2

I have been with them for 3 years. The council restructured our department and employed all 5 of us at the same time. I progressively have had my wages increased from £21,000 - £23,800. I have been told by 2 of the other employees that they were put on the highest right away as they told their managers they couldn't afford to take the jobs without that salary - perhaps that was my mistake?

LittleVoice

AimeesMum wrote: »

I have been with them for 3 years. The council restructured our department and employed all 5 of us at the same time. I progressively have had my wages increased from £21,000 - £23,800. I have been told by 2 of the other employees that they were put on the highest right away as they told their managers they couldn't afford to take the jobs without that salary - perhaps that was my mistake?

If you have been doing this job for 3 years and are on £23,800 with a payscale from £22K to £32K then that shows you have been moving up the scale which the other workers will not have done if they started at the top.

I don't understand why a trainee would start at above the first spinal point of the scale.

If the others said they could not afford to accept the job at a lower rate then they presumably were paid that higher rate in their previous jobs - or it would make no sense that they could work for lower pay elsewhere and then suddenly not be able to cope on the same pay in the new role. They may well have longer service than you and have their pay protected if they otherwise would have suffered a pay cut by taking up a (forced?) transfer.

Evilm

Best thing to do is to ask for a pay rise politely and see what happens. If you are refused or still feel slighted then consult a lawyer to see if they can find any kind of discrimination taking place.

[Deleted User]

Grounds for appeal? Blimey, its a good job you don't work in the private sector

If you feel you are 'worth more' then find another employer that will pay you what you want.

Hammyman

Ihatecameron wrote: »

But you can't discriminate against staff who are doing exactly the same job.

Yes you can. I can pay Bob £7/hr for putting 20 sausages in a box and I can pay Ted £6/hr for putting 20 sausages in a box.

There is nothing anywhere in any employment law which states two people doing the same job have to be paid the same amount as long as that difference isn't on the grounds of race, religion or sex.

Savvy_Sue

AimeesMum wrote: »

I have been with them for 3 years. The council restructured our department and employed all 5 of us at the same time. I progressively have had my wages increased from £21,000 - £23,800. I have been told by 2 of the other employees that they were put on the highest right away as they told their managers they couldn't afford to take the jobs without that salary - perhaps that was my mistake?

that probably was your mistake ...

If you're moving up the payscales, then the best you might hope for from a local council would be an extra increment, in my experience. And that experience is from several years ago, and no doubt things are tighter now.

However, there's also a lot more 'structure' in that environment, so that it would be unusual for people doing the same job to be on different grades. If you're on the same grade, not a lot more to be done, because you agreed to go in at the bottom and they didn't. If you're on a different grade, there's probably more wiggle room, but in the current climate I wouldn't hold your breath!

patchwork_cat

You say that the council restructured you and yet you have set hours, you take work home and at 22 are on £23 800 and other members of your office earn almost £10K more for the same job. That isn't any council I have worked for!

If you work for the council you will have a very specific pay grade and job description, and are on a serious amount of money for 22. Just ask for a regrade,the process will be detailed talk to your union, if you are agency then renegotiate or move on.

Are you in a technical or legal team, as you are being charged out? You have a broad scale range, is there a bar?The only job I can think of like this would be graduates or professionally qualified. What is it scale 5 - po3? There will be bars almost certainly.