Pay rise 18 October 2022 at 4:33PM edited 18 October 2022 at 4:38PM in Employment, jobseeking & training 10 replies 565 views

Sophie081084

Hey I may just be bitter but wanted to know where I stood .... so I've worked for my company for 12 years and in 2019
we was bought by a new company so my contract was tupe. At the start was promised an whole host of things yet up to this day nothing!
our wages obviously stayed the same but we was paid more than what they start there staff on. Within the role if you learn a new skill they increase you salary by £1000 a year for every new skill. However I feel they are squeezing the life out the ones who were passed over as every couple of months being trained on a new skill but have seen £0 pay rise since we was taken over as far as the are concerned we are paid higher than what they offer. It just dosent feel fair that never get a pay rise for the new skills as my old employee paid better. Is this something I have to just suck up. I've questioned this countless times and been told it was being looked at and thats it ended.  Just feel all the new staff and up lifting there pay after less than a year of service and 12 years in getting nothing 

DullGreyGuy

Did you sign new contracts or are you still on your TUPEd contract?

This whole "skills" thing appears to be an invention of the new company... does your contract have anything in it about a salary uplift for new skills? Has there been a determination of what skills you have as at the TUPE date?

At the end of the day as long as people are paid NMW and inline with their contract and any differences arent down to protected characteristics (sexual orientation, religion, gender etc) then two people doing the same job could be paid vastly different salaries and its perfectly legal. 

Sophie081084

We started working from home once covid hit and had to sign a new remote Working
contract. But nothing in there I can see about what skill I have etc. we was taken on as "elite members" with our knowledge base but Just been passed around like a bone with no reward 

Marcon

Sophie081084 said:

Hey I may just be bitter but wanted to know where I stood .... so I've worked for my company for 12 years and in 2019
we was bought by a new company so my contract was tupe. At the start was promised an whole host of things yet up to this day nothing!
our wages obviously stayed the same but we was paid more than what they start there staff on. Within the role if you learn a new skill they increase you salary by £1000 a year for every new skill. However I feel they are squeezing the life out the ones who were passed over as every couple of months being trained on a new skill but have seen £0 pay rise since we was taken over as far as the are concerned we are paid higher than what they offer. It just dosent feel fair that never get a pay rise for the new skills as my old employee paid better. Is this something I have to just suck up. I've questioned this countless times and been told it was being looked at and thats it ended.  Just feel all the new staff and up lifting there pay after less than a year of service and 12 years in getting nothing 

Stop letting yourself be fobbed off - you are clearly very upset by this and if you let it continue without at least trying to pin your employer down, you'll only get more distressed. 

Savvy_Sue

Could you earn more elsewhere? If you could, there's your answer ...

TELLIT01

There is no automatic entitlement to any payrise unless you would fall below the minimum wage without one.  Any rises based on performance are generally discretionary so can't be assumed will happen.  The idea of a £1k increase for every 'new skill' is an interesting one.  Who defines what is required to be deemed a new skill?

Sophie081084

Email had been sent to the company to say if you learnt xyz you would earn £1k for each new brand . Basically the company has bought new businesses to add so if you learn a new brand and you can assist across that brand you get £1k for each. And there 4 new areas. So I've learnt 3 now but as my salary was higher than there starting wage for new staff and with the extra £4k that you could add on I have no extra nor will get any ever as my wage from company I was tupe over from was higher just doesn't feel fair. There longest serving staff are 7/8 years. My wage was higher as I've done for 12 so I've earnt that wage over the years but now hit a wall. 

I could maybe earn more else where but I work remote as have children and get good sick pay holiday etc from my long service so feels a risk to leave ...

Marcon

Sophie081084 said:

Email had been sent to the company to say if you learnt xyz you would earn £1k for each new brand . Basically the company has bought new businesses to add so if you learn a new brand and you can assist across that brand you get £1k for each. And there 4 new areas. So I've learnt 3 now but as my salary was higher than there starting wage for new staff and with the extra £4k that you could add on I have no extra nor will get any ever as my wage from company I was tupe over from was higher just doesn't feel fair. There longest serving staff are 7/8 years. My wage was higher as I've done for 12 so I've earnt that wage over the years but now hit a wall. 

I could maybe earn more else where but I work remote as have children and get good sick pay holiday etc from my long service so feels a risk to leave ...

Then the choice is yours - but try and pin the company down to an answer, even if it isn't one you like. Few things are more infuriating than the endless getting nowhere scenario you're currently trapped in - and you're going to have to be the one to break that cycle.

gm0

You have thought it through. 

If you are on a higher than new hire band pay point for a level.  This can happen in a single company over the years as the world changes. It doesn't need TUPE.  Corporates flatten structures. People get stranded on better than (new) peer group pay.  But in pay increment terms and sometimes promotion opportunity this easily becomes a dead end. While you remain valuable enough you are left alone to get on with it. 

Since you don't fit on the capability and increment model from the lower base - you don't get it.  Your base pay is high so the bonus (if that is a thing) % and budgets don't work right.  You are sand in the oyster.  You have an invisible little red sticker on your virtual personnel file.  Sorry I don't know the correct emoji for this in the modern HR world.

Unless you can combine a staff shortage moment in the business area, with a high performance year for you, and a new and naive and a bit desperate boss - the "I'll leave if I don't finally get my payrise" probably won't work.

When I pushed harder - I just got told I lacked credibility in my threats because I hadn't quit already during the initial flatline. 
Which was correct.  I *was* bluffing.  A bit unhappy around the deal but not actually unhappy enough everything taken into consideration to quit.  So it wasn't nice. But they weren't wrong.  And it doesn't say fair on the tin

Savvy_Sue

It's also not uncommon after TUPE or a staff regrading exercise for some people to be 'held' on a particular salary level for a period while others catch up.

elsien

Savvy_Sue said:

It's also not uncommon after TUPE or a staff regrading exercise for some people to be 'held' on a particular salary level for a period while others catch up.

Agree. That’s happened with 3 organisations I’ve worked for. The TUPE staff on higher pay don’t get the pay rises till others in the same job have caught them up. 

I also had a colleague on a higher wage than me and better annual leave because they were TUPEd over complaining that I got a cost of living increase and they didn’t. I pointed out that if they wanted to change over to the new company’s terms and conditions they were free to do so otherwise I had no sympathy.