Grievance advice

[ZP91]

Hello,

I'll try and keep this as brief but informative as possible. If anyone could shed any light on a few of these questions etc it'll be of massive help


Quick summary - I am a field service engineer of 7 years with a large company. I have recently discovered that engineers baring the same work load, skill set and exact day to day contracts are being paid up to £6,000 more annually than myself, whilst most of these engineers do have a time served on the company ranging from 15-20 years I struggle to get my head around this. The double edged sword on this is that recently 2 engineers still under going training and coaching have had their salaries made up to mirror my own whilst carrying out menial tasks and mainly still shadowing the lead engineers like myself. I have put a grievance in after my FLM has claimed he does not issue the pay rises so he cant help. What are my chances at a grievance hearing as I am worried from what I've found online they often dont go in favour of the employees?

I have also been told I am not allowed to discuss my own or anyone elses salary, Please note i have never forced them to answer but merely dug around a little to see what ball park other people are paid. Is this even enforceable if the work force is ok to be open about our wages?

And lastly, Im currently self certifying myself time off work during this time due to the stress of all of it, including treatment by the company and dealing with my first time trying to organise my defence at a grievance hearing - My FLM has replied claiming that the company will not go ahead with a hearing until I deem myself fit to come back to work and carry on as normal. Which slightly feels like blackmail as I am perfectly fine with a grievance hearing whilst im off (my company will carry out hearing via video call such as microsoft teams)

Thank you for any advice big or small you can give

Thanks Z

[ULA]

Unfortunately I cannot advise on your chances of your grievance in respect of your salary going in your favour. There will be two factors that determine this, how you present your case at the hearing and the view of the person chairing the grievance.

Company's do try to stop employees sharing salary information and many cover this off in policies/staff handbook, so you need to check if the company you work for has one in place. However if there is nothing in place then this is difficult to enforce.

How long have you been off work as you state you are self-certifying? You are likely to have a company sickness policy that will require you to provide a Fitness for Work (FfW) certificate from your GP after certain period of time, typically this is 7 days.

In respect of the grievance meeting, you state you are off with stress, which means that your employer has a duty of care and whilst you are self certified they only have your reason for being off sick not what has been determined by a GP on a FfW certificate. Although they will not want to delay a grievance meeting indefinitely they may well be waiting to arrange until they know you are returning or they have a better understanding from a FfW certificate as to a medical opinion and when you may return to work.