Is this discrimination?

lancstulip

My current employers sent an email to all employees last month saying that there was no money available for any pay increases linked to performance (as happened as part of the appraisal process pre-Covid). I applied for another job and got it, but today have seen my current job advertised at significantly more than I have been paid the past three years. I’m rather miffed since I have been told by my line manager that I’m one of their best managers and had I been offered a pay rise it is highly unlikely I would have applied elsewhere. Is there anything I can do? 

MovingForwards

Take the new job and move on or negotiate a payrise to stay; but do you want to work in a company who increased the pay only because you were leaving.

It's not discrimination, none of you were getting a raise based on performance.

elsien

On what basis do you consider you are being discriminated against? 

Have you handed your notice in? If offered more would you now want to stay or have too many bridges being crossed. 

If a) negotiate with your manager if they want you to stay. Although tbh if they were so desperate to keep you, they may have offered you the payrise not to leave.
If b), move on and make the most of your new job. 

lancstulip

Surely offering a significantly higher rate of pay for doing the exact same job with the same experience is discriminatory.

elsien

There are many jobs where people are offered different rates for doing exactly the same job. Depending on either performance or their ability to sell themselves/ask for a raise. 

Every time you go to a job interview, the panel is discriminating between Candi perfectly legally in order to find the best person for the job. 

It’s only unlawful if it’s proved to be based on a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. Which protected characteristic do you feel applies to you in this situation? 

You may feel it’s unfair but there’s no legislation around fairness. 

lancstulip

I feel that it’s because I’m female which would most definitely be discrimination! 

74jax

lancstulip said:

Surely offering a significantly higher rate of pay for doing the exact same job with the same experience is discriminatory.

No its not.

You can have more than 1 person doing the same role all on different rates.

You could be paid 20k, leave and the person taking over the role could be offered 25k.

A company pays what it wants to the person or wants. 

lancstulip

I am extremely experienced and over qualified for the job to boot so they couldn’t justify the higher rate offered on those grounds either. 

JReacher1

lancstulip said:

I feel that it’s because I’m female which would most definitely be discrimination! 

Be very hard to prove this.

Savvy_Sue

So if another woman gets the job at the increased salary, that'd be OK? But not if a man got it? Is that what you're suggesting?

It probably would be discrimination if they gave all the women a £5K increase and not the men, or if they gave performance increases to all the men and not the women. Neither of those has happened. 

You have given notice. The company has advertised a job at the rate the company is prepared to pay a new recruit. They are entitled to do so: they could, a week later, advertise another job at £2.5K more than you were paid, and a week after that one paying £7.5K more than you were paid, and each job could be exactly the same, and there would be nothing unlawful or discriminatory in that - UNLESS they were daft enough to ask for particular personal characteristics in the adverts. 

Move on, be grateful you're leaving an employer who doesn't value what you brought to the company. If it'll make you feel better, have your say to the company, tell them if you'd been offered a payrise on that level you might have stayed, threaten them with all sorts - but just remember, at some point in the future you may need a reference from them again, or you may run into someone from the company elsewhere. You want to be memorable for the right reasons: "oh it was such a shame tulip left, she was an amazing manager" rather than "oh tulip, she's the one got a bee in her bonnet about discrimination, she was a good manager but she knew nothing about that kind of thing." 

A very basic introduction: https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination

"It is against the law to treat someone less favourably than someone else because of a personal characteristic such as religion, sex, gender reassignment or age." 

They're not treating you less favourably because you have CHOSEN to resign because you have been offered a better job. 

mjm3346

lancstulip said:

I am extremely experienced and over qualified for the job to boot so they couldn’t justify the higher rate offered on those grounds either. 

Nothing really for them to justify to you - they have offered what they think they need to attract the right person for the job.