Secondnent pay

P_Quinn

Hi,

I was on secondment last year on a set salary around £2k more than my normal role
I was asked to return to my core role due to sickness in the area which I ended up covering with overtime whilst still working in the seconded position.
this lasted around 6 weeks, during this time my salary was brought back down as I was classed as returning to my original department.
an unfortunate set of circumstances had arisen in the department I was seconded to and I have now been covering someone in the same position I was seconded to, for over 12 months, I have been asked why my pay has not been reverted back as I never officially left the department where I was seconded to & I've had managers leave, HR leave etc who were all dealing with my pay so 12 months on I am still being underpaid by £2k compared to what I was on the last time I was in the department.
My manager has came back to me recently stating that my core pay was in the job bracket of the seconded position so I won't get an uplift but my point is that I have not become less proficient in the role so why am I getting paid 2k less than last year when I was on secondment, its not my problem that members of hr and my previous manager left the business without sorting this mess out. I have had conversations with my manager over 6 months ago as I raised the fact, I wont stress myself out doing all the extra work for no extra pay and I was reassured that it will be sorted but they now seem to be back tracking and saying, my secondment had ended and a new one was never put in place even though 3 months into the last stint int his department a secondment was advertised but the hiring manager left the business so it was never officially signed off to me, I was just asked to cover it and my pay would be sorted when the new manager arrived.

Do I have any grounds? Surely they can't ask me to do the same role as last year where I was paid 103.5% of the salary band, assure me my pay would be corrected, have me chase it for near 12 months, to then come back and say no your on 95% proficiency pay grade, even when in march I had the highest rating you can get in the business for my end of year review... so in effect it should be on 107%, not 95%.

Marcon

P_Quinn said:

Hi,

I was on secondment last year on a set salary around £2k more than my normal role
I was asked to return to my core role due to sickness in the area which I ended up covering with overtime whilst still working in the seconded position.
this lasted around 6 weeks, during this time my salary was brought back down as I was classed as returning to my original department.
an unfortunate set of circumstances had arisen in the department I was seconded to and I have now been covering someone in the same position I was seconded to, for over 12 months, I have been asked why my pay has not been reverted back as I never officially left the department where I was seconded to & I've had managers leave, HR leave etc who were all dealing with my pay so 12 months on I am still being underpaid by £2k compared to what I was on the last time I was in the department.
My manager has came back to me recently stating that my core pay was in the job bracket of the seconded position so I won't get an uplift but my point is that I have not become less proficient in the role so why am I getting paid 2k less than last year when I was on secondment, its not my problem that members of hr and my previous manager left the business without sorting this mess out. I have had conversations with my manager over 6 months ago as I raised the fact, I wont stress myself out doing all the extra work for no extra pay and I was reassured that it will be sorted but they now seem to be back tracking and saying, my secondment had ended and a new one was never put in place even though 3 months into the last stint int his department a secondment was advertised but the hiring manager left the business so it was never officially signed off to me, I was just asked to cover it and my pay would be sorted when the new manager arrived.

Do I have any grounds? Surely they can't ask me to do the same role as last year where I was paid 103.5% of the salary band, assure me my pay would be corrected, have me chase it for near 12 months, to then come back and say no your on 95% proficiency pay grade, even when in march I had the highest rating you can get in the business for my end of year review... so in effect it should be on 107%, not 95%.

Grounds for what? Getting annoyed/frustrated/disappointed, yes. Not sure about anything else - your thread is quite hard to follow, although I'm sure you know what you mean! If you write out a simple but clear chronology (nothing more exotic than a list of dates of when things happened/what actually happened/what you understand you were promised) and try presenting that to support your case for a pay increase, you might manage to concentrate a few minds and actually get somewhere. Good luck!

t1redmonkey

It is a bit confusing to follow.  I was in a similar situation a few years ago.  I was on secondment, supposed to be for 12 months, ended up being 9 months since area I left needed me to cover for sickness in their area.  For months 9-12, I ended up still getting paid what I got paid in the first 9 months, but I'm still not sure whether that was just a HR error, or if they kept paying me that just because the contract I signed originally was 12 months, not 9 months.  Then after 12 months (or the 4th month back in my original role) I reverted back to my original wage.

I think from what you have said, it sounds like they are telling you that you've been doing the seconded role longer than the contractually agreed time frame, and because a new contract was never signed, as far as HR/Payroll are concerned you've maybe 'officially' been reverted back to your original role's contract (not the seconded one)?  Although even if that's the case, it just kinda sounds wrong what they're doing, since it sounds like you are doing a role with higher responsibility without being recompensed for it.  If you are a member of a union, maybe worth discussing with them?

yksi

You should tell them that you're no longer interested in doing the cover/secondment because you are not being compensated extra, so you would like to return ONLY to the position in your contract.

Let them flail about and panic and realise that they should sort their !!!!!! out.

lincroft1710

If they are paying you the same as your pre secondment salary and it is not below NMW, then either you accept the secondment or ask to be returned to your substantive role or on the grounds you believe you are not valued by your employer. look for another job