on mat leave and just received my letter about pay rise...

[tostaky]

and it is a f*ing joke!!! My pay rise is of o.51% not even the inflation rate!!!

My boss has always been a two-faced asshole but I was hoping that the consensus bw HR, him and another boss would hsave given me of a pay rise...
please note that the HR person told me to use my annual leave to go to antenatal classes and after i complained many times, sent me a badly printed letter of apologies...

so how do i play it?
Send an email to boss , hr and other boss ? or just to my boss?
Should i ask for a meeting? or should i do that over the phone?
How do i prepare for the "battle".

Mat leave started 1st Nov 08, did take about 5-10 days off-sick this year due to pregnancy, made more money on my project than other project manager did previouasly, this money was used by my boss to sponge the bad debt of his business development in the US.
I also fully trained the person who took over from me. and last but not least i was part of the team on a project which did work that the DfT rated as "best" amonghst different consultants and i helped my companie win a £0.5 million project and they are so proud of it it is currently show-cased on the intranet...

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tostaky]

sorry about typo and broken english but currently breastfeeding and still in shock...

[madeindevon2]

sry to say
but maybe in these difficult times be glad you have a job?
most people wont get a pay rise....lots will be made redundant in fact
unless im missing something they are under no obligation to offer any payrise at all?

[flowerytaleofNewYork]

What kind of payrises have everyone else got? Are you saying that you are being discriminated against because of your maternity leave, or do you just think the pay rises being offered this year are not enough.

If it's the second, you may just have to put up with it and be glad they are in a position to offer any kind of rise at all.

[tostaky]

my company is not (yet) affected by the global economic outurn, the letter i got this morning starts with "this year has been another very successful one for us, [..] the developing eco crisis has presented some difficult challenges [...]but there is good reason to be optimistic[...]

I think it is a bit of both... the thing about wanting me to use my A/L for antenatal classes and the big fuss i had to make (i have a proof that my boss asked HR to tell me to use A/L), and also the fact that i never had a pay rise less than 5% (once 12%) and that the (published) average is around 3-4% depending on the years...(dont know this year)

I should say that my boss has always been overtly dissmisive of people leaving (snarly comments like "she doesnt interest me anymore, she's leaving soon")so wouldnt be surprised the same has been done to me...

[tostaky]

madeindevoon - pay rise are linked to performance reviews (I scored 80% a few days before i left) and then discussed b/w hr (the same person who told me to use A/L, so not very objective and obvioulsy wants to please my boss - god knows why?) , my boss and another boss (which i had no or little involvement with at all during the year)

I am grateful my job is not on the line bc my dp's is... im in a very conservative industry (engineering) and theres no shortage of projects in the world yet or for the next 10 to 15 years...