Employer reneging on promise salary increase

stevejbrecon

Hi,

Bit of a long story but please bear with me.

In October 2018 I missed out on a promotion within the company where I work. But as a result of that process the directors stated that they were impressed with my work and my application and would like to put together a specific role for me in the company to use my talents and ensure that I stayed with the company.

Following this meeting I chased numerous times and the responsibility for this was passed from pillar to post as higher ups changed job roles and eventually it landed on a new member of staff's desk.

I met with them and my line manager in February 2019 at which point they said that they had received authority to increase my salary by £1000.00. I said, and my line manager agreed, that this was entirely unreasonable and presented a business case as to why. The new director promised to review and get back to me within "2 weeks". I chased a total of 13 times over the following months, and nothing came of it whatsoever.

Eventually in November 2019 I had another meeting with my line manager and the same director who said that following the review of the business case they would be increasing my salary by approx £6000.00, this was agreed with me and my line manager.

Following that meeting I again heard nothing and chased shortly before payday in Jan 2020 to confirm that everything was in place for the new salary to be paid. There was no response from HR, payroll nor the director. Payday came along and my salary was paid but there was only a £3000.00 increase in my salary.

I queried this with HR, but there was no response. Eventually the director responded to say that he had requested the £6000.00 increase but that the "remuneration committee" had reduced this and only approved £3000.00. I was never informed of this. Nor was there any inclination in the meeting with the director that the salary was subject to any sort of approval. My understand, and that of my line manager was that the salary had already been approved. In fact my line manager confirmed that it had been factored into the budget for next year.

I have now also been informed that the company as a whole will be receiving a fixed % increase to their salaries as part of the annual pay review, but that I won't be eligible for this because I have had a change in salary within the last 6 months.

I have also worked out that had I accepted the £1000.00 increase in February 2019 and then received the company wide % increase I would actually be slightly better off than my current agreed increase of £3000.00.

Apart from the obvious "quit and work somewhere less awful", is there any recourse I have in this situation? Can I raise a grievance that I was told the increase would be £6000.00 without any indication that this was "subject to approval", which was subsequently then reduced without informing me? I have been told that there is no appeals procedure or method of challenging the salary increase until next January.

I don't feel like either the director or my line manager are trying to "screw me over" more that to the company I am nothing more than a number on a very big spreadsheet and the actual details just get lost.

Is there anything I can do in this situation?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

ACG

I do not think there is anything you can do unless you have a contract that states you are definitely getting the pay rise. 
I am not sure anything from your line manager would be enough unless they are high enough in the company to authorise the pay rise which does not appear to be the case. I am not a professional though.
You have spent nearly 18 months chasing what has equated to a £3k pay rise which is half what was agreed. What makes you think complaining again is going to get you anywhere? 
It appears what was agreed in 2018 was a new role with a pay rise, did the role ever materialise? If not then you have had a pay rise albeit a little less than you would have had but by the sounds of it nothing substantial. 

kiddy_guy

It's another vote for looking elsewhere. But don't be tempted when they eventually offer you the salary you're worth. If they don't think you're worth it now, another short term increase won't be met with others. Time to look elsewhere. 

Dox

Question: how valuable am I to the company? 
Answer: not very.

Sadly, it's a case of move on.

ACG

Dox said:

Question: how valuable am I to the company? 
Answer: not very.

Sadly, it's a case of move on.

Im not sure I agree with that. 

One of my first jobs was with RBS, I was promoted twice within 2 years - was I valuable to them? Nah. I left and actually as it happens it all went to pot and their share price tumbled within 3 months but I am 99% sure that was nothing to do with me and I was probably replaced within 15 minutes. 
Did I enjoy working there? I loved it for the first 18 months.
I was paid pretty well (better than I realised looking back). I would have been frustrated if I had not got my annual pay rise, but I was earning more than people in my family who had been working for 20-30 years and I was only in their call centre so nothing high up.
The key question is, are you happy there despite the pay issues and are you actually paid fairly? It is easy to say you want more but the business is there to make a profit in order to trade the next day. 

TELLIT01

Unless it is written into your contract that you will get a payrise on a set date or dates, and the level of that rise, there is very little you can do.  Most companies and managers are too clever to guarantee payrises.  They will more usually promise to review your pay after x months - that's a very different thing.

Pajaro

Nothing you can do except find another job that pays more - if they value you they will make a counter offer to stay.