Employer reneging on agreed salary increase when passing probation

[CACheckreq66]

Hi there,

any advice i have on the legal grounds around this would be helpful.

I joined a company a few years back who i am currently with still. Part of the my agreement to join the company was a pre-agreed salary increase upon passing probation.

I have this increase and the specific amount detailed in an email from the manager, sent from their business email address, with my contract attached. it isn't in the contract itself though.

The email makes reference to confirming this arrangement with the agency who they hired me through, that they would provide this salary increase upon passing probation. I have copies of all these original emails still.


Do I have any grounds to challenge and request that the employer honors the agreement? possibly backdates it from the point of my probation being passed?

I passed my probation but they made an excuse about not honoring this request in a verbal call, nothing in writing mentioning this to me directly that i can find, and the whole thing fell by the wayside till recently where i have brought up my salary in general.

any advise is appreciated

[ULA]

There is some basis for going back to your employer on this although it was not in your contract of employment. Which are:

1. The written intent to increase your salary on passing your probation was contained in the same email that accomanpied your contract of employment. There was a clear intent that the hurdle you had to pass for the prescribed pay rise was the successful passing of your probation period.
2. The agency you were hired through was made aware that this was part of the proposed offer to you for joining.
3. There was consideration by you, when agreeing to accept the offer, that this would be forthcoming assuming to met the criteria of passing your probationary period.

The legal bit is that promises, even verbal ones, (and this was in writing) an be legally binding as long as the promise was clear enough, there was intention to be bound and the employee provided consideration, i.e. you agreed to the offer to join the company.

However I have a concern that you may have caused yourself and issue due to the length of time it has taken for you to highlight this.

[CACheckreq66]

There is some basis for going back to your employer on this although it was not in your contract of employment. Which are:

1. The written intent to increase your salary on passing your probation was contained in the same email that accomanpied your contract of employment. There was a clear intent that the hurdle you had to pass for the prescribed pay rise was the successful passing of your probation period.
2. The agency you were hired through was made aware that this was part of the proposed offer to you for joining.
3. There was consideration by you, when agreeing to accept the offer, that this would be forthcoming assuming to met the criteria of passing your probationary period.

The legal bit is that promises, even verbal ones, (and this was in writing) an be legally binding as long as the promise was clear enough, there was intention to be bound and the employee provided consideration, i.e. you agreed to the offer to join the company.

However I have a concern that you may have caused yourself and issue due to the length of time it has taken for you to highlight this.

Hi. Thank you for your advice on this, i brought the issue up with a new manager who recently started and have been advised without argument they will apply the increased salary from my next pay.

I have asked it will be backdated from the date of my probation being considered completed. I hadn't ever gotten confirmation of an extension to my probation nor a formal conversation confirming it. I hadn't received a proper email or letter confirming the probation is passed but all this would change is how many years of pay i would be owed by the company from what I can tell.

I have a few follow up questions if anyone is able to advise also:

Am I entitled to having it backdated?
Am i correct in my understanding and previous advise regarding probation that if no formal confirmation is made I am considered passed my probation in terms of UK legislation? thus I can successfully argue my probation was the 6 months in the contract as specified and from that point forward was entitled to my salary increase?

Does my justification during the interview really matter about honoring the agreed salary increase?
The management stated confusion around the commitment to provide me the salary, stating that I said it was for 'X' reason and 'X' reason was no longer applicable due to changes in working due to COVID and lock-down (keeping the reason out as it would likely identify me.) My counter to this is while 'X' was a reason i provided during negotiations, it wasn't my only reason and it wasn't stipulated as being required for my salary increase; just that I would be given it once i passed probation. (this is confirmed by the new manger who has seen the email, my reason isn't in the email agreeing to the salary increase after i pass probation, just that they would give me it once the probation is passed. with the length being defined as 6 months specifically in the contract.

I also put forward if they gave another employee the salary increase years before COVID happened for the same reason, would they then have decreased his salary upon the situation change? Would you say my logic in this argument is sound? Does my reason matter outside of the interview?

Thank you again for all the help and advise so far, its been really helpful and appreciated in my confidence to challenge these issues.

[ULA]

If you were not told during your probation period that it is to be extended, or that you have failed your probation, you are deemed to have passed by default. You therefore can effectively argue the salary increase to be back-dated to this time.

The issue is that you gave an express reason for justifying the salary increase after the successful completion of your probationary period and I can only assume on that basis the company agreed the increase would be due, as set out in the email. Without knowing those reasons I cannot say whether the company has a right to rely on these reasons not being fulfilled due to Covid and lock-down as an argument to day you should not get the increase.

I would however counter this by saying that if the employer was expressing relying on this then they should have made that clear as a criteria in the emial i.e. you will get a pay rise on successful completion of your probataionary period on the basis that x,y,z reason happens/is achieved or something on those lines.

[CACheckreq66]

Hi! Just an update for those who helped me (or maybe have read this for advice also.)

I received confirmation of my pay increase via email, along with confirmation they will backdate my pay from the data of my probation.

My workplace also confirmed my probation date to be 6 months from my start date and didn't formally contest anything. I have to wait and see my next pay date that everything has been processed, as originally all this was verbally confirmed in a 1-2-1 meeting the previous month and nothing happened by the next pay day.

Hopefully now I got them to confirm this all in writing and confirm it will be completed by the next pay date, that it will all be resolved. I couldn't have contested this with confidence without your guidance and assistance/advice so thank you very much!

[ULA]

Hi CACheckreq66 thank you so much for coming back to update us and glad that our advice helped you resolved your issue with the company and that this will all be confirmed and paid.

Best wishes