Pay rise Advise

[Michy78]

Hello,

I have been working for my company for the past 10 years, in total 14 years as I have been through 2 TUPE .

Throughout this long 10 years I have never received a pay rise beside the yearly bonus of 1- 1.5% and £500 increase 5 years ago due to an award I got nominated for by my colleagues who sent it to HR .

I have attempted to ask a pay rise few times in the past but i never been successful because my manager never liked me and tried her best to push me out strategically on so many occasions which affected by self confidence .

During Covid lockdown, i was the only one who worked in my department for 6 months straight as my colleagues did not get a laptop so i covered the whole department. Also for the past year ,

I have been working alone with no help when my colleague is on holiday and covered the job of 3 people for 6 weeks throughout the year We are short staffed but recruitment is frozen so there is no escape from this.

As i do not trust my manager and i wanted to write an email with various bullet points to justify the pay rise and cc her boss to make sure she will reply to me as very often she ignores my email .

The point is also If anyone will start working in my department now, they will be earning more than me with 14 years service which is even more disheartening.

I do like my jobs and i have a very good relationship with clients as well as giving me the freedom to have a life work balance.

I think it might be a good point to ask for the salary of my current role to be benchmarked. my role involves admin, customer service and business support so it a mixture or multiples role in one Any advise will be appreciate it

Thank you in advance

 

[Inked1]

what union are you in?

 

[Semple]

Everyone's advice will be to find a new job. You'll never be appreciated there. You should have looked to move 5 years ago.

 

[tom_e]

For the love of all things holy, paragraphs please.

 

[Illusion]

At most you’ll probably be able to force them into 10% kicking and screaming. If you’ve genuinely worked there that long with barely any rises you must be at least 30-40% below the market rate surely?

Just find another job

 

[Michy78]

I am not part of any union and i have a medical condition which set me back hence why i haven't changed job.

Will also appreciate not saying anything rather than be judgemental or sarcastic with your comments

Thank you

 

[Inked1]

My advice is to join the union , what type of job do you do? the union will have a rep who will be assigned to your case and sort them out.

 

[Inked1]

I see you write you are in admin , this is who you need in your sector https://www.unison.org.uk/about/our-organisation/our-members/ join and tell them what you have told us it will be worth the £15 a month fee

 

[dowie]

I have been working for my company for the past 10 years, in total 14 years as I have been through 2 TUPE . Throughout this long 10 years I have never received a pay rise beside the yearly bonus of 1- 1.5% and £500 increase 5 years ago due to an award I got nominated for by my colleagues who sent it to HR

A bonus isn't a pay rise a bonus is an individual payment do you mean that or do you mean you've been receiving a 1 - 1.5% pay rise each year and are referring to that as your "bonus"? You seem to have conflated things: "I have never received a pay rise beside [something that isn't ordinarily a pay rise so not sure why it's mentioned there]"

If you've not received *any* pay rise at all then that alone is pretty reasonable grounds for review, unless you were massively overpaid when recruited then inflation would have taken it's toll and like you said a new person might well be earning more than you, HR is supposed to keep an eye on this stuff for internal equity purposes and just doing your job should be sufficient to justify an increase.

If you have actually been receiving some token pay rises of 1-1.5% then there is still perhaps an issue with your pay being inflated away but also you may want to highlight the additional value you've added when asking for one, your years of experience in the role and how that is valuable to them, your work during Covid, any areas where you've gone above and beyond or have contributed value to them etc.

It might be worth doing the above in a meeting, send an e-mail to arrange one and perhaps in your follow-up, you could CC in your boss' boss too.

Ultimately though you perhaps should have addressed this way earlier either by pushing for a pay rise or promotion(s) years ago or simply leaving.

 

[Michy78]

I work as a customer Service / Admin in facilities Management for a Bank but I am contractor so it is all another story . We used to also cover the duties of a call centre but due to lack of staff , we are working only via email and dealing with in house system requests and luckily I am working remotely which I am very grateful for . The job title is not a specific one that i can easily search online but i believe I am underpaid about 10% less so i was wondering if I can try to go for the route of asking my salary to be benchmarked. and if copying my manager Boss will be professional as often she does not reply to my emails

I don't think the union will be able to help in my case and cannot use them straightaway

 

[Michy78]

A bonus isn't a pay rise a bonus is an individual payment do you mean that or do you mean you've been receiving a 1 - 1.5% pay rise each year and are referring to that as your "bonus"? You seem to have conflated things: "I have never received a pay rise beside [something that isn't ordinarily a pay rise so not sure why it's mentioned there]"

If you've not received *any* pay rise at all then that alone is pretty reasonable grounds for review, unless you were massively overpaid when recruited then inflation would have taken it's toll and like you said a new person might well be earning more than you, HR is supposed to keep an eye on this stuff for internal equity purposes and just doing your job should be sufficient to justify an increase.

If you have actually been receiving some token pay rises of 1-1.5% then there is still perhaps an issue with your pay being inflated away but also you may want to highlight the additional value you've added when asking for one, your years of experience in the role and how that is valuable to them, your work during Covid, any areas where you've gone above and beyond or have contributed value to them etc.

It might be worth doing the above in a meeting, send an e-mail to arrange one and perhaps in your follow-up, you could CC in your boss' boss too.

Ultimately though you perhaps should have addressed this way earlier either by pushing for a pay rise or promotion(s) years ago or simply leaving.

Thank you for your response . I am aware that a bonus is not a pay rise and it never even covered for the inflation . I have asked for pay rise in the past other times but i was denied although i had plenty of evidence of good performance and excellent customer feedbacks. Few years ago, I actually went to speak directly with my ex manager Boss because my manager was not helping but it did not bring any result . I am at the point now that with this inflation, i am just about surviving because 1.5% bonus will not help even to pay my basic needs although it is not a justification to ask a pay rise but have plenty of reasons to ask for it although my company wages are appalling

 

[peterwalkley]

Customer service for a bank is perceived as a cost centre (to be minimised as much as possible) and I'm surprised your job hasn't already been outsourced somewhere cheaper like India or the Philippines. Are there internal roles that are more sales oriented you could go for ? A revenue earner instead of a cost is in a much better bargaining position. Failing that, as already mentioned, get out and get a better job elsewhere.

Even when there is a sound justification for you getting a decent pay rise, they'll likely not give it because they open the floodgates to everyone else.

You will never be valued where you are. Find something better.

 

[dowie]

I work as a customer Service / Admin in facilities Management for a Bank but I am contractor so it is all another story.

Oh, that probably does change things quite a bit, if you're not actually an employee then stuff about internal equity etc.. is probably irrelevant, you're not an employee so they don't need to care much about that. Technically you're self-employed or employed via an agency so in theory, it's either the agency you need to go to to get a bigger hourly/daily rate or you're renewing with the client yourself and should simply ask for more when your contract renews... I guess it's perhaps low-paid and via an agency? As you're sort of treated like an employee but sort of not then perhaps you should talk to *both* the agency and whoever you report to at the bank.

 

[Michy78]

No I am an permanent employee on a permanent basis and not recruited by an agency . The bank, which is our client ,employed my company to cover the facilities management aspect and other sectors within the bank like catering , AV etc.. i am not self employed at all

 

[Stu999]

At most you’ll probably be able to force them into 10% kicking and screaming. If you’ve genuinely worked there that long with barely any rises you must be at least 30-40% below the market rate surely?

Just find another job

Was gonna say, how does your salary compare to similar roles elsewhere OP?

 

[Michy78]

Was gonna say, how does your salary compare to similar roles elsewhere OP?

My salary should be around 10% more but I am working remotely so there is no a straight forward comparison in the facilities Management sector as they are all on site . Also when contacted by other recruitment agencies , they were all really surprised about my low wage . I just hope I can fight my case although having a Manager against me ,makes things even more challenging hence why i want to involve the Senior Managers as I will never be able to trust her after so many attempts of bully me out and treating me differently than my other colleagues. Not trying to play the victim but i am just stating how tricky things are

 

[Inked1]

Maybe they want you to leave, hence why you should have union support, you have a grievance , what is the grievance procedure at your workplace?

 

[Michy78]

Long ago I had a face to face conversation with my manager during my last appraisal almost 5 years ago and I told her i knew she was trying to push me out strategically and also that her behaviour towards me has been noticed by other colleagues and another manager which is true .She obviously denied everything and she wanted the names of the people that noticed her bad behaviour but i never told her to protect them .I asked her not to force me to take action against her bullying and mistreating behaviour and I advised her although she does not like me , she has to respect me as an employee. I don't have a problem about her disliking me but I hate the fact she is abusing her power in the wrong way. I accept that We don't like everyone we work with but my point is we have to respect them and that goes for both of us . To be honest , I really don't want to go with this route because she has a family and at the end of the day ,I still have to work with her which will make things even more awkward

 

[Dalandius]

My advice would be look for another job, you do not have to be serous about getting another job but it would give you a better idea of how much the job you are doing should be paying.

 

[dowie]

My salary should be around 10% more but I am working remotely so there is no a straight forward comparison in the facilities Management sector as they are all on site.

So what? Just compare with the on-site figures then. It's pointless to quibble over stuff like that, get some figures and use them in your argument for a wage or use them to figure out how much you should be asking for if moving elsewhere.

Also when contacted by other recruitment agencies , they were all really surprised about my low wage.

Try to keep your wage to yourself then and give them a target range if asked.

Maybe they want you to leave, hence why you should have union support, you have a grievance , what is the grievance procedure at your workplace?

edit - actually if there is a constructive dismissal thing then that might be the way to go though really an employment lawyer would be better in that case. HR exists mostly to protect the management/execs from employees, going to HR about this could just as easily backfire and speed up their trying to get rid of OP.