Possible Pay Discrimination?

[Victor2]

I wanted to ask some advice about possible pay discrimination at work. I have listed two issues below. I have changed the names of individuals for privacy purposes.


I work in a department with two other engineers and we each have the same job role.
One of my colleagues (Tony) was originally employed to take on a project contract and when that ended, about three years ago, was moved into our office with the same roles and responsibilities as myself and the other engineer (Ryan).


I discovered just before our last salary review that Tony is on almost £10k a year more than me £40k versus the £30k that Ryan and I are on. I do understand that because we are all the same gender and race that this disparity is legal however there do not appear to be any genuine reasons for the difference other than Tony was given an inflated salary to be taken onboard originally.


In our current roles, I have more relevant experience. I have a longer period of continual service. My output is better and I am generally seen as the most capable person in the department.


I raised the issue with my then manager at the time who agreed that there was a significant difference in the salaries and that as it was just before the salary reviews that the company would do as much as it could in my pay review to address this. In the end I was given a 2% increase which turned out to be the same across the board in the rest of the company in all departments.


However, Tony did point out that this had been the worst salary review he had received to date. In my opinion this suggests that up until this point, despite the huge disparity in pay the company had still been giving him percentage increases in line with my own and thus never attempting to bridge the gap. It almost seems that until I mentioned it the difference in salaries had been ignored.


The reason for my post is what has happened in the last few days. I am now being asked to take on some of the work that Tony has not managed to complete in time. In other words, the company recognises that he is not capable of meeting the requirements of the job and want me to take over some of his work. Do I have some legal ground here to follow as this must surely be seen as unfair treatment.


On top of that, I have been made aware that several staff members in our company are paid for their overtime. We have always been advised that overtime is only available to non-salaried employees. It turns out that many salaried employees have been given overtime pay to work longer due to recent increase in workload. This has applied to those individuals who were resistant at increased obvious overtime requirements. I say "obvious" as the overtime required was more easily quantifiable. Overtime in our department is less quantifiable as the work can vary from contract to contract. Is this also not a form of discrimination - i.e. shouldn't I also be entitled to overtime pay then?

Thanks in advance for your views and replies on this.

[leclerc]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

Do you like your job?

Are you looking to get out of this job?

You're looking from the above post to cause a nuisance to your employer because of perceived inequalities or differential treatment of some workers.

Tony cannot be penalised in pay terms if he job role has changed not directly through any fault of his own.
You can refuse to do the work but that does not help you gain any particularly advantage apart from appearing to only wanting to do your own work and not help the team in general.
Other staff members might have to have overtime authorised by a member of management so clearly what they get or do not get is none of your business.

If you hate your job look for another one but if you want to cause hassle for your employer because of perceived inequalities then get over it. It happens in the workplace and either you deal with it or you get out.

[Victor2]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

Hi leclerc,

I'm not looking to get out of this job. In fact, I like my job and don't wish to move. I've been there over 10 years and get on well with those around me. I'm not looking to cause a nuisance, I actually came on here to get some information on what is legal or otherwise.

I agree that Tony should not be penalised financially if his role ended and he was given an alternative role. This role is identical to my role. My grievance is that he is less capable of doing the job and gets significantly more. I'm aware that if I was a different gender or race then this would be a "no contest" situation. That points to be as being unfair - I'm just not sure that on top of the "being given some of his work" whether it is still legal.

To answer your suggestion about being unhelpful: I don't think I am being unhelpful if I am doing more than my fair share of the department workload (this is provable). I do think it is unfair when I am now being asked to pick up some of his workload as well. I guess you disagree but would ask you to put yourself in the same situation. To me it seems like he needs to be more of a team player rather than less so. However, that is just an opinion so I'll try to stick to the facts at hand. My question was whether or not the company is treating me unfairly in this situation and if I have a genuine grievance that needs to be resolved.

Regarding the overtime, I have pointed out that the company policy is that salaried employees do NOT get paid overtime. My question is whether or not it is discrimination when the company then decides to pay certain staff for their overtime and not others. A statement like "it's none of your business" isn't actually telling me that there are valid grounds for this type of approach or not.

You seem to have taken this message very personally, and you express quite a bit of anger in there with words like "hate" and "get over it". Perhaps you have been on the opposite end of a similar case in the past. Either way you are almost taking this much more personally than I am.

Granted, I appreciate this is a forum and not direct discussion with those in the legal profession and I understand people will take a certain bias on how they perceive my original post. I would say that if I am coming across as someone who has been deliberately looking for a fault by my employer that is certainly not the case. My length of service and quality of output would prove it but I can't post that here. I will however tackle issues that affect me in the same way I would expect my employer to should they have issue with me.

[leclerc]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

If you were a different gender then the issue is the same ie Tony was hired on a higher salary and he could not be penalised for a change in his job role. There is no issue here.

There is no discrimination on overtime if that overtime is authorised by the line manager.

I never take annonymous posts on a forum personally. It's just that I do not in anyway empathise with your viewpoint except that you are disgruntled that one person appears to do less work and gets paid more and others get paid overtime and you do not. Have you asked about doing overtime and been refused?

Are those employees getting overtime doing the same job as you in that department?

[Victor2]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

Hi leclerc,

Thanks for your reply. I think perhaps I haven't been clear on the overtime side of things. I typically do about 15-30 hours overtime per month and always have needed to do this as overwise things would slip behind. Most of the staff are in a similar position. Now that there is more business, the company needs almost all of the staff to do overtime. As many would not, they have been paid for their overtime. It wouldn't bother me if the overtime was not expected from me.
Hope that makes things clearer.

[wales01man]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

Can I suggest you ask the boss for a pay rise and refuse to do overtime without pay?
Worth asking

[leclerc]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

Hi leclerc,

Thanks for your reply. I think perhaps I haven't been clear on the overtime side of things. I typically do about 15-30 hours overtime per month and always have needed to do this as overwise things would slip behind. Most of the staff are in a similar position. Now that there is more business, the company needs almost all of the staff to do overtime. As many would not, they have been paid for their overtime. It wouldn't bother me if the overtime was not expected from me.
Hope that makes things clearer.

If you are salaried, then unfortunately, this is not something that does not happen. Personally, if I were you I would take a log of exactly how much more "extra time" you are doing each month because ultimately you need to put together a business plan for either (a) a pay rise or (b) a change in the number of hours worked ie increase in hours or even (c) so that you can argue that on busier months that overtime should be there on those busier months.

A second thought is whether or not those extra hours would mean that you could start later the following day after a long day. It might be the case that you need to suggest that more staff are taken on possibly even part time because otherwise the job does not get done.

[teaboy2]

Re: Possible Pay Discrimination?

To be honest - Over time issues aside and back to the point about difference in salary. Your really clutching at straws. Does one professional striker at a club complain that he is getting 50k less per week than the other stiker at the same club, despite feeling the other striker that is on more is less skilled and scoring less goals (less capable)? No they don't.

Tony is on an employment contract, his salary is likely negotiated like that of the professional strikers mentioned above. His annual pay rise may likely be part of his contract also - In fact to give everyone a pay rise but to give tony less of a pay rise, would actually amount to less favorable treatment which itself could be grounds for discrimination against Tony.

Your view that he is less capable than you because he was not able to finish a job on time, is simply your own view clouded by the fact hes on more money than you, when it there is likely to be underlying reasons beyond Tony control that lead to the completion being delayed, such as wrong materials being delivered or having to wait for materiel's parts. Perhaps Tony has a disability that makes he work at a slightly slower work rate than others. Should tony be discriminated against for matters beyond his control? No he should not!

Perhaps he is paid so much more due to overall experience, or more qualifications then what you yourself have. Are you not yourself discriminating against tony by saying he is less capable? Yes, you are!

To me your simply basing your assessment of Tony's capabilities, of lack of capability, without knowing the full facts of the situation or the particulars of his employment contract.

If i was you, i would concentrate more on york own work as an employee and spend less time on judging or comparing yourself to others. As one thing that annoys an employer more than most other things, is an employee that considers him/herself to be more capable or off higher value to the employer than other employees. Its called floating your own boat, and it pisses employers off, for the simple fact that in most cases that employee floating there own boat is not as capable, or more capable, or more valuable than other employees, as they like to think they are. Am sure your employer could pull you up on a number of matters relating to your own work capability that you may not even have consider or know about.

I know its not what you wanted to hear, but it had to be said, and i do not mean any offense despite the harshness of my words, so that you know that there's more to this than simple grounds of capability or that of your own opinion of another worker. In fact, if you don't stop walking down this path, you will likely be the one that is disciplined yourself for bulling/harassment or discrimination of Tony if you keep replaying the same old record.

End of the day their is no legislation governing Pay Discrimination, there's no such thing as pay discrimination to be honest. The difference in pay between genders is more a generalised issue throughout the UK, but does not amount to sexual discrimination, hence why its still an on going issue. Because if it did amount to discrimination, it would no longer be an on going issue.