Bit of advice please...........

Helen171

Have worked at the same place for fifteen years now and always been on a higher rate than my colleagues (20p) for the safe running of the store, being 1st on call should a break in happen, false alarm etc, more importantly as officer in charge of the post office so discrepancies, mistakes made by new users (there is quite a few) and the monthly balancing is down to me.

I have realised that since the increase in minimum wage to 7.50 he has kept me on the same rate where as usually it is in accordance.
We have never been given payslips (illegal I know) so I have asked for them to be sure.

He has never spoken to me about this and I feel he is taking the Mick but how to go about putting my case across without sounding very annoyed, which I am!

Many thanks

agrinnall

As long as you are earning above NLW then there's no legal case for you to be paid more than anyone else. So all you can do it raise it with your employer and hope that it's just an oversight.

Undervalued

Helen171 wrote: »

Have worked at the same place for fifteen years now and always been on a higher rate than my colleagues (20p) for the safe running of the store, being 1st on call should a break in happen, false alarm etc, more importantly as officer in charge of the post office so discrepancies, mistakes made by new users (there is quite a few) and the monthly balancing is down to me.

I have realised that since the increase in minimum wage to 7.50 he has kept me on the same rate where as usually it is in accordance.
We have never been given payslips (illegal I know) so I have asked for them to be sure.

He has never spoken to me about this and I feel he is taking the Mick but how to go about putting my case across without sounding very annoyed, which I am!

Many thanks

Very carefully for the reason described in the post above!

Helen171

Then very carefully I will do, thank you.
Although, would it be reasonable for me to remove myself from 1st on call and also stop taking responsibility as supervisor?

Undervalued

Helen171 wrote: »

Then very carefully I will do, thank you.
Although, would it be reasonable for me to remove myself from 1st on call and also stop taking responsibility as supervisor?

No!

It may be "reasonable" in many people's eyes but you have no legal right to do so without your employer's consent. You agreed to do the job on the current terms and there is no legal entitlement to a pay rise unless you fall below the national minimum wage. In general terms it is perfectly lawful for an employer to pay different amounts to people doing the same job. It would only be unlawful if it was because of race, gender etc.

Helen171

I did indeed agree to do the job but with agreement of enhanced rate?!
That enhanced rate no longer stands?

Undervalued

Helen171 wrote: »

I did indeed agree to do the job but with agreement of enhanced rate?!
That enhanced rate no longer stands?

Has your pay actually gone down?

Unless it has the fact that your employer is now choosing to pay somebody with less responsibility the same as you is legally irrelevant.

Sometimes this can be due to the ease or difficulty of recruiting staff at different times. If you need a junior person but can't get one at the original rate then you have to offer more. That doesn't mean, legally, that you have to put up the pay of existing staff.

I sympathise but there is no point in pretending to have non-existent rights.

Helen171

No it hasn't gone down. So I have a legal obligation to furfill my side of the contract ie, on call, supervisory role, when he does not?
Let's hope it is an oversight although I doubt it, or I am over a barrel.

Thank you for your replies.

Undervalued

Helen171 wrote: »

No it hasn't gone down. So I have a legal obligation to furfill my side of the contract ie, on call, supervisory role, when he does not?
Let's hope it is an oversight although I doubt it, or I am over a barrel.

Thank you for your replies.

I doubt your contract entitles you to be paid £X more than a junior person. It would be a very unusual arrangement. Your entitlement is almost certainly to an agreed amount of pay and not a relationship to somebody else's. Any increase is a matter for negotiation unless your pay falls below the NMW when an increase to correct that would be a legal right.

Helen171

Thank you very much for your replies they have been most enlightening and very knowledgeable!

Rightly or wrongly I shall be removing my name from alarm security as I won't be paid to either be on call or even when called out as this was also part of agreement, as I were paid enhanced rate I would therefore not book the call out at all.

As the saying goes "you live and learn"

TBagpuss

As undervalued says, it's unlikely that you have a contract that says you get paid more than others for doing the supervisory role. Your agreement was that you would accept £x per hour for doing the full role, including the supervisory tasks.

What you are now, in effect, saying is that you feel it is time that you were giving a pay rise.

I would suggest that you raise it with your boss. Don't treat it as him/her having been fair, approach it factually;

e.g.
My pay has not changed since [date of last pay rise]
I feel that my wages don't reflect the additional responsibilities I carry out, such as [give examples]

Then be clear about what you want. This might be
- I am requesting that my pay is increased by [amount] to [new amount] or
- I don't feel comfortable doing the supervisory task, I would prefer to revert to standard duties, can that be agreed?

And see what they say.

Also, think of specific things you've don't which have benefitted the business - e.g if you are able to say that you've resolved / prevented x,y and z that would have cost the company money, bring that up, so you can justify asking for additional money,.

However, the bottom line is that they don't have to pay you any more, and if you still feel unhappy then you may have to decide whether you want to look elsewhere for a job which pays better or where you don't have the additional responsibilities.