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Grievance letter after accepting Severance
Darkhawk
Posts: 288 Forumite
Hi guys,
Firstly I want to apologise for this humongous post but please do bear with me, this has been hard and I would greatly appreciate your help
I want to write a grievance letter after the company that took over my current workplace resulted in many workers - including myself seeing their wages cut down by more than half, even if we work overtime or during public holidays we do not get any extra bonuses, just the flat rate.
Our Annual leave as well as Bank holidays have been greatly reduced but those are not the main reasons why my colleagues and I want to raise a grievance with the company - upon taking over they pretty much gave us an ultimatum as they wanted to run the business under their own terms and conditions as soon as possible, this was to either take the compensation and resign or to take the compensation and re-apply onto their terms and conditions as a new staff member.
We were all told that this was going to be the first and final offer with no negotiations whatsoever and if we didn't sign by the given date, the company firstly said that they may withdraw the offer and leave employees at the risk of getting absolutely no compensation whilst still having the option to sign onto the companies new terms and conditions (meaning much lower wages). This resulted in many employees panicking and signing the severance because they couldn't risk not getting anything.
A small number of staff did sign the severance after the first offer whilst the majority didn't sign because they believed the offer to be very unfair.
After this outcome the company decided to make a new offer - going against what they initially said by saying those who didn't sign will have more time to consider and even those who already signed would get an increased offer. The majority of staff then took this offer because the company left them with no other option by saying the offers may be withdrawn after the deadline.
If staff still didn't agree then there would be individual consultations in order to come to a better agreement between the staff members concerned and the company because the company would be unable to run the business with two different terms and conditions for its staff with some on higher wages and others on lower wages whilst still doing the same job.
It was after this that those who didn't sign at all were able to continue working at that workplace but with the original terms and conditions for a further 5 months after the deadline, meaning they were on much higher wages. These remaining members of staff were ready to fight and bring the case to court if necessary but all of the sudden they agreed and signed the severance and left their respective posts - these were people who were strongly against these offers and had shown no signs of giving up even after numerous deadlines.
The majority of the staff remaining widely believe that those staff members were given a significant severance offer compared to those who signed the first and second offers.
The reason why so many of the employees there, including myself want to raise a grievance is that we felt like we were treated unfairly as the company constantly gave us deadlines whilst emphasising the risk of having any offers withdrawn with no possibility of further negotiations. We feel misleaded.
We need help making a grievance letter for a large number of staff all regarding the same issue, we all want to voice our grievance through the same letter, if possible and we would love some help to find how to go about it as we have no experience in doing something like this.
Looking forward to hearing from you all, any help is greatly appreciated! :money:
Firstly I want to apologise for this humongous post but please do bear with me, this has been hard and I would greatly appreciate your help
I want to write a grievance letter after the company that took over my current workplace resulted in many workers - including myself seeing their wages cut down by more than half, even if we work overtime or during public holidays we do not get any extra bonuses, just the flat rate.
Our Annual leave as well as Bank holidays have been greatly reduced but those are not the main reasons why my colleagues and I want to raise a grievance with the company - upon taking over they pretty much gave us an ultimatum as they wanted to run the business under their own terms and conditions as soon as possible, this was to either take the compensation and resign or to take the compensation and re-apply onto their terms and conditions as a new staff member.
We were all told that this was going to be the first and final offer with no negotiations whatsoever and if we didn't sign by the given date, the company firstly said that they may withdraw the offer and leave employees at the risk of getting absolutely no compensation whilst still having the option to sign onto the companies new terms and conditions (meaning much lower wages). This resulted in many employees panicking and signing the severance because they couldn't risk not getting anything.
A small number of staff did sign the severance after the first offer whilst the majority didn't sign because they believed the offer to be very unfair.
After this outcome the company decided to make a new offer - going against what they initially said by saying those who didn't sign will have more time to consider and even those who already signed would get an increased offer. The majority of staff then took this offer because the company left them with no other option by saying the offers may be withdrawn after the deadline.
If staff still didn't agree then there would be individual consultations in order to come to a better agreement between the staff members concerned and the company because the company would be unable to run the business with two different terms and conditions for its staff with some on higher wages and others on lower wages whilst still doing the same job.
It was after this that those who didn't sign at all were able to continue working at that workplace but with the original terms and conditions for a further 5 months after the deadline, meaning they were on much higher wages. These remaining members of staff were ready to fight and bring the case to court if necessary but all of the sudden they agreed and signed the severance and left their respective posts - these were people who were strongly against these offers and had shown no signs of giving up even after numerous deadlines.
The majority of the staff remaining widely believe that those staff members were given a significant severance offer compared to those who signed the first and second offers.
The reason why so many of the employees there, including myself want to raise a grievance is that we felt like we were treated unfairly as the company constantly gave us deadlines whilst emphasising the risk of having any offers withdrawn with no possibility of further negotiations. We feel misleaded.
We need help making a grievance letter for a large number of staff all regarding the same issue, we all want to voice our grievance through the same letter, if possible and we would love some help to find how to go about it as we have no experience in doing something like this.
Looking forward to hearing from you all, any help is greatly appreciated! :money:
0
Comments
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what do you think will come from the grievance?
The company will just look at it make some noises and do nothing.
I suspect the people had Comprimise agreements so you should never find out what they got. if not a CA. ask them
Botom lineis some people were better at negotiation than others.
Companies lie or stretch the truth so you have to take independant advice never believe what they tell you.
The time to take action was the first time they tried to change anything, stay as a group and taken legal advice.
The clue they were not confident they could impose the new terms was they were prepared to give compensation and keep your job.
How was the compensation given for those that took it and kept their jobs,
If it was a comprimse agreement(with legal advice) then they are stuffed.
As a group chip in and get an employment lawyer to look at the situation to see ifthere is anything you can do, anyone with legal cover on their house insurance etc that covers employment issues, any union members.
One other point this compensation was taxed for those that stayed?0 -
getmore4less wrote: »what do you think will come from the grievance?
This ^^^^
What is the point of "fighting back" after the event when you have agreed to the terms the company offered you? They aren't going to do anything. You aren't going to get another offer. So what do you expect to gain from this?0
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