A secondment to cover for maternity leave

ajm410

Hi all,

The background

On 1 May I was given a 6-month secondment to cover for a colleague who is away on maternity leave. (In effect, it was a 6-month direct promotion), and someone was appointed externally on a 6-month contract to cover my position.

Now, because it's very close to the end of those 6 months, I'm keen to speak to my boss about what I can expect will happen, i.e. whether I'll be promoted for good, or will revert back to my old position and when exactly that might all happen.

Anyway, first I thought I'd ask the person covering my role if they'd heard anything (as surely they'd be more eager to find out than me - since they could potentially be out work from next month). She said that they've extended her contract by another 2 months - to 31 Dec 2011.

I'm a bit annoyed that no one has given me the courtesy of speaking to me about this, but I shall now approach them

The questions:

1. When they put me on secondment, my manager was disappointed with the salary they offered me. I therefore imagine this is less than the girl who I am covering for. Should this be the case?

2. Have I in fact *passed* my secondment (which was specified at 6 months (no roll over), and which I passed a review of after 3 months)?

3. In short, are they taking liberties here by underpaying me? I'm sure I read somewhere once that legally a firm has to pay someone covering maternity leave the same amount of money, since they're doing the same job - I assumed my work were trying to get around this with the whole secondment idea. Should I speak up?

Sorry if I've made it too longwinded, and thanks in advance for any answers

SarEl

1. They can pay you whatever they want to pay you provided that it does not break the law. You have no automatic right to be paid the same as the woman whose post it is.

2. It's a secondment. Whatever reviews they have are also their business. It changes nothing whether you pass or not - except that if you failed then you may be removed from the post. You are still a secondee, it isn't your post, and passing or failing a review doesn't give you additional rights.

3. See 1. They are not underpaying you. They are paying you what they agreed to pay you. You may have read that somewhere here - if you did it would be one of the wrong pieces of advice!

You can ask - you always could have - for more money. if they don't want to give it to you then they will say no. Which is likely since they have agreed your pay and there is no incentive for them to pay more.

ajm410

Thanks SarEL

So can they just extend it indefintely?

If, in the end they were to make it a permanent role for me, should I be expecting to receive more money?

(I'm sorry I just had no idea what a secondment was - I thought it was some sort of induction period, and so was happy to accept what I believed to be less than the going rate)

SarEl

Ok - back to basics time. You still work in your original role - you "own" that. You are on temporary loan in your current position - that is what a secondment is. OK? A secondment can last for a long time - years even. So it never becomes "your job". If the person doesn't return then the employer may let you have it. But they don't have to - they can advertise it and you would still have to apply. Being in the job may give you an advantage - but it gives you no rights.

Even if you get the job permanantly at some point in time then what you get paid is between the employer and you. Or to be more precise - they employer can still pay whatever they want, provided that in so doing they do not break the law. So there is still no right to a pay increase. It is still a case of you would have to ask and they can say no.

ajm410

Thanks very much for explaining all that!

an9i77

Agree with SarEl you are on secondment, the job is not yours but the post holders and you agreed the salary for the period of time the secondment is for when you agreed to take it on. If they do want to extend the secondment, this would indicate that they are happy with your work and have a need to keep you on for longer, that would be the time to negotiate your secondment salary. As you had already been doing the job for six months or so by then,you would be in a good position to negotiate a higher salary as you could demonstrate your worth by illustrating your acheivements / competence during that time.