is this legal?

Jezzabo

Hi everyone,

First post, hope it's in the right place. I may not be right here, so I'm keen to hear some opinions. I'll try and be brief.

I work for a global USA-headquartered company who employ thousands around the world. I am based in the UK and have worked for them for 4 years. I was originally a Finance Advisor for the Emea region reporting directly the Head of Finance for EMEA. Due to the nature of my job, I know all the salaries. I was on £33,000 with a 15% bonus and my manager was on £72,500 with a 25% bonus. Fast forward - our company was merged with another. Due to popular request, the company offered a voluntary redundancy option. I applied for it and, as it turns out, so did my manager. Hers was accepted and I was offered a retention bonus of £8,500 to stay. I took it. My managers manager (based in U.S.) also left (she retired shortly after my manager left.) she said that they felt k was more than capable of taking over my managers work while they "decide if they backfill her position". The company had a policy where all redundancies were backfilled. She said that my job role "would change completely" so if need to have my job evaluated. Fine.

Anyway, my current manager took over and cue issues. I raised this in Feb, heard nothing. Chased. No reply. Eventually she raised my salary to £42000 and changed my title to Snr Finance advisor. I felt this undermined what I was doing and it turned out she was clueless as to the amount of responsibility I now have. I chased and chased the status of this and received no update. She emailed in September to say she would review it during the annual compensation review. Fair enough. Anyway, news from CEO is that the yearly salary increases have been postponed til Apr. I emailed my manager to ask her if there was an update on my compensation review and job re-coding and no reply. Infuriating. I know she'll come back and say all salary increases have been put on hold, but I don't see this as a payrise, more a matter of fairness.

So far I have NO documentation, letter, job spec to account for the fact I am doing 2 jobs (one of which a v senior post). Is this legal? All the (incidentally male) employees in identical situations in other departments have received correct payrises and title changes. I can see all the salary info. Is there anything I can do?

sangie595

Jezzabo wrote: »

Hi everyone,

First post, hope it's in the right place. I may not be right here, so I'm keen to hear some opinions. I'll try and be brief.

I work for a global USA-headquartered company who employ thousands around the world. I am based in the UK and have worked for them for 4 years. I was originally a Finance Advisor for the Emea region reporting directly the Head of Finance for EMEA. Due to the nature of my job, I know all the salaries. I was on £33,000 with a 15% bonus and my manager was on £72,500 with a 25% bonus. Fast forward - our company was merged with another. Due to popular request, the company offered a voluntary redundancy option. I applied for it and, as it turns out, so did my manager. Hers was accepted and I was offered a retention bonus of £8,500 to stay. I took it. My managers manager (based in U.S.) also left (she retired shortly after my manager left.) she said that they felt k was more than capable of taking over my managers work while they "decide if they backfill her position". The company had a policy where all redundancies were backfilled. She said that my job role "would change completely" so if need to have my job evaluated. Fine.

Anyway, my current manager took over and cue issues. I raised this in Feb, heard nothing. Chased. No reply. Eventually she raised my salary to £42000 and changed my title to Snr Finance advisor. I felt this undermined what I was doing and it turned out she was clueless as to the amount of responsibility I now have. I chased and chased the status of this and received no update. She emailed in September to say she would review it during the annual compensation review. Fair enough. Anyway, news from CEO is that the yearly salary increases have been postponed til Apr. I emailed my manager to ask her if there was an update on my compensation review and job re-coding and no reply. Infuriating. I know she'll come back and say all salary increases have been put on hold, but I don't see this as a payrise, more a matter of fairness.


So far I have NO documentation, letter, job spec to account for the fact I am doing 2 jobs (one of which a v senior post). Is this legal? All the (incidentally male) employees in identical situations in other departments have received correct payrises and title changes. I can see all the salary info. Is there anything I can do?

Is there anything you can do. Yes. Find a job that pays what you want to be paid.

Sorry, but you have a salary - there is no legal right to evaluation, review or increases. Fairness only matters in terms of legal fairness - and legally you haven't a leg to stand on.

Jezzabo

Thanks Sangie. Appreciate your thoughts. I guess my problem stems from being told one thing and another thing happening. my contract states that I am only contracted to take on similar duties so I believe they are breaching my contract personally.

sangie595

Jezzabo wrote: »

Thanks Sangie. Appreciate your thoughts. I guess my problem stems from being told one thing and another thing happening. my contract states that I am only contracted to take on similar duties so I believe they are breaching my contract personally.

I wouldn't bet my job on that. Job descriptions are not usually contractual, and even then there is usually an "anything else" clause for work. Honestly, legally this argument would take you nowhere. You cannot force your employer to give you a pay rise. And no court would be able to determine "the rate for the job" because there isn't one for any job. As long as you are paid more than the national minimum wage, everything else is between you and the employer.

Jezzabo

Thanks. Is this the case even though the value of both jobs together vastly exceeds the amount I am being paid and the same treatment has not been applied to every other promotion?!

discat11

Yes I am very much afraid sannie is correct.
There is no rate for the job and the salary of previous incumbents doing part of the job are irrelevant since any employee has the power to agree what salary they are working for at the time of the job offer.

They only legal standpoint on this is if persons with the same job description and title doing largely similar (and it would have to be VERY similar) are being treated differently to you on a basis that falls under discrimination.

I suspect if you are saving the company a very large amount by acting up the new role then you'll force them to make a significant offer IF you find another job paying a higher rate elsewhere.
Make sure you actually are prepared to leave however as they may well just say 'goodbye & good luck'

Jezzabo

Thanks Discatt. Since there was no opportunity for me to negotiate and they did not properly consult with me about this, can I refuse to do all the extra work?

Jezzabo

Ultimately I am fed up with working 12 hour days (I have to take work home to ensure I stay on top)

Mersey_2

sangie595 wrote: »

Is there anything you can do. Yes. Find a job that pays what you want to be paid.

Sorry, but you have a salary - there is no legal right to evaluation, review or increases. Fairness only matters in terms of legal fairness - and legally you haven't a leg to stand on.

That isn't quite true.


Legal fairness as you put it includes both statutory employment law rights, as well as contract law.

The OP raised a grievance and it has not been responded to. I assume you did this in writing. If possible, forward this email to HR / a Director and ask for a formal response.


Fundamental terms including your Job Title cannot be changed unilaterally and the firm should have sought your agreement.


Employers also have to show that they have complied with the law and followed proper procedure in terms of equal pay, redundancy processes and so on.


Breach of contract - as another poster suggests - is quite common in this area. Of course, employees have to decide whether they want to raise this and pursue it. Redress is available in terms of ADR and/or issuing proceedings in the County Court.


Your best course of action would be to seek advice from an employment lawyer; but, ultimately you need to decide where you want to work.

Jezzabo

Mersey thank you so much for your detailed response.

The problem is that my boss is HR, if that makes sense. HR are based in the states and I could go above her to her boss but am reluctant to rock the boat. Ultimately she's completely negligent, never meets up to chat over the phone, never checks in with me. If this came out to her manager there would be serious consequences and I can't be dealing with that. She's already a bit sh*tty with me, because her emails are very blunt (if she replies at all).

Still not received a response to my query about what is happening with my job coding. I might raise this with our company legal counsel, who I work very closely with.
The company haven't done any of the things you outlined. I have never once even had a phone all with management to establish exactly what is expected of me in this "new role".

Many thanks again.

getmore4less

Jezzabo wrote: »

Ultimately I am fed up with working 12 hour days (I have to take work home to ensure I stay on top)

Blatent refusal is usualy a non starter, but self management of your workload can reduce the amount of work.

you have to manage the expectations of others on timescales, you can't do everything so things have to give.

Understand the priorities and push back stuff that can wait.
Deligate there must be people that take over the work when sick or on holiday get them doing more.


Booking a two week holididay and going 100% offline can focus the company on what you do that is worth the salary you are asking.