Back Pay Rights as a company leaver

charlierwalker

Hi all.

Newbie here so please be nice.

For the last few years I worked for Network Rail right through COVID. I wasn't in a union myself.

After covid the annual pay review was due for my pay bands and should have been agreed by November 2021 for implementation Jan 2022.

Due to the RMT/TSSA dispute, this dragged on and was finally only agreed in January 2023 I believe.

Unfortunately during this time I got a career opportunity I couldn't refuse and moved on to a new company.

I was employed for 47 of the 52 weeks of 2022 and this pay deal involved backpay to the start of 2022.

Unfortunately as a leaver I'm struggling to get access to this backpay. My argument being if they'd got their act together and done it on time I'd have benefitted from it prior to me leaving. I also understand when the management bands were agreed a few months before that management leavers got back paid - although I only have this heresay. 

Is there any action I can pursue to get access to this backpay? I believe it's worth around £2/2,500. I've been chasing this now for 5 months with no luck.

Cheers.

Marcon

charlierwalker said:

Hi all.

Newbie here so please be nice.

For the last few years I worked for Network Rail right through COVID. I wasn't in a union myself.

After covid the annual pay review was due for my pay bands and should have been agreed by November 2021 for implementation Jan 2022.

Due to the RMT/TSSA dispute, this dragged on and was finally only agreed in January 2023 I believe.

Unfortunately during this time I got a career opportunity I couldn't refuse and moved on to a new company.

I was employed for 47 of the 52 weeks of 2022 and this pay deal involved backpay to the start of 2022.

Unfortunately as a leaver I'm struggling to get access to this backpay. My argument being if they'd got their act together and done it on time I'd have benefitted from it prior to me leaving. I also understand when the management bands were agreed a few months before that management leavers got back paid - although I only have this heresay. 

Is there any action I can pursue to get access to this backpay? I believe it's worth around £2/2,500. I've been chasing this now for 5 months with no luck.

Cheers.

What does your contract say?

lincroft1710

There was a similar thread on here a week or two ago.


It is often the case that people who have left employment prior to a backdated pay rise being implemented are not entitled to it

Annisele

Please use this experience as a reason to join a union at your new place of work. But for the union's action there wouldn't even be a question of backpay. And if you'd been in the union, the obvious answer to your question would have been "go ask your union rep".

In general leavers aren't entitled to backpay, but as Marcon implies the answer is going to be in your contract. If you're contractually entitled to it, you'll get it. If you're not, you won't.

TELLIT01

Other than being able to ask a union rep to confirm the rules, being in a union wouldn't make any difference to entitlement or otherwise. 

Annisele

TELLIT01 said:

Other than being able to ask a union rep to confirm the rules, being in a union wouldn't make any difference to entitlement or otherwise. 

That's true; I wasn't clear. What I meant was that the only reason anybody got a backdated payrise is because of the actions of the union - or, more accurately, the union's members acting together. If OP wants to be able to benefit from that sort of collective action in future, I think they should join a union so they can participate in it.

Bobbobbobingalong

TELLIT01 said:

Other than being able to ask a union rep to confirm the rules, being in a union wouldn't make any difference to entitlement or otherwise. 

Except where the Union's Officers may have such a relationship with the employer that they can negotiate ex gratia payment on an exceptional basis of course.

baser999

Similar situation here, was working for ambulance service throughout Covid and shortly after I retired it was announced that staff were to be given extra leave ‘as a thank you’ in lieu of certain restrictions having been in place previously. Part of my final pay cheque included payment for unused annual leave but I was told I didn’t qualify for the extra leave as I’d left, even though I worked throughout the qualifying period. 

Contrast that with a colleague who’d been classified as Covid vulnerable, hadn’t physically been into work for over a year yet got the extra leave 🤔

trf0412

FYI - there's another conversation about this same topic on:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/network-rail-pay-award-2022-leavers.250881/

It might be worth everyone discussing this issue in a single place, in case we decide to join forces if it's decided that there is a strong case to be made for pursuing legal action.