Or is in breach of equal pay and is my boss a cheeky fucker?

[MeleysRedQueen]

So I work in a client care role don't want to say the industry in case of being outed. I was promoted 4 months ago to team leader. The previous team leader was basically a bully and upset most of my team and other teams in our organisation and played favourites with people. They have since left and I was given their role and a lot changes needed to be done because the team leader left us in a big mess and staff morale was low.

Before taking the job I explained I would need time to update policies and implement new practices to improve things and was promised that time. However I was never allocated the time and was told to find time myself by my boss who indirectly hinted I should do it at home. My workload doubled when three of my team left. I asked for a working day from home because there are no quiet places to work in our office and I am constantly being interrupted by colleagues on other teams demanding I do tasks for them. I have mental health conditions that affect me in that if I am concentrating on a task and I am interrupted it messes my concentration and I have to start my task again which takes me longer to complete my admin.

I have requested a working day from home as an adjustment so I can work quietly uninterrupted my boss refuses to do this but won't offer any alternatives. However my boss does allocate time for my team to do their admin tasks but tells me I need find the time myself and constantly books my diary with client appointments making it impossible for me to complete my admin. I recently found out that a junior member of my team is on the exact same pay as me and has no experience of this industry previously and I am doing double the workload he is doing.

As you can imagine I was pissed off and myself and my boss got into an arguement about it when I confronted him (in private in his office) and he was angry and said it was against the law for us to discuss our salaries (I checked and it isn't if we're talking about our own salaries and but it is if we were talking about someone else's salary). I work very hard and have made some positive changes to the team that has made their lives easier there is more but the post is long enough as it is so feel free to ask any questions.

We were supposed to have a meeting early in January to discuss this situation but it was cancelled and my boss never rescheduled it and basically said it won't be happening whilst expecting me to continue with the workload I have and now expects me to provide training for the newest team members and has told me I must find the time and won't allocate time.

I finally had enough and resigned my position as team leader and since then my boss has been incredibly petty with his behaviour and has tried to get me to do management tasks which I have refused to do. My aibu is when I was promoted I was given a pay rise and knowing my boss I suspect he will change my salary back to what it was which I think is unreasonable as I work very hard and prior to this promotion I suffered bullying from the previous team leader and their favourites who have all left. I went to my boss on several occasions to deal with it and he didn't as it carried on until they decided to leave but resulted in me going sick as it effected my mental health.

I feel given the circumstances I should be able to keep the salary I got after promotion and its not fair that a junior new to this industry out earns me when I have nearly 3 years experience and I am expected to take on a big workload due to being more experienced. I have a meeting next week to discuss this but wondered if anyone knows if my boss can legally do this. From what I have read my boss has not followed the equal pay legislation. But I'm unsure of where I stand legally. Can anyone help?

Do you have an HR department or can you book a meeting with the bosses boss. It needs sorting but doesn't sound like boss will sort it

Why are you still there look for something else it sounds awful

You have resigned, just sign off sick for the rest of your notice period so you can look for another job. Your boss can’t reduce your salary while you are off sick.

She's only resigned from the team leader role, not the job she was doing

You need to ask for a salary review, if it's not forthcoming then resign from the whole thing once you've found a job

This is utter bollocks and depends entirely on the OPs contract.

My aibu is when I was promoted I was given a pay rise and knowing my boss I suspect he will change my salary back to what it was which I think is unreasonable as I work very hard and prior to this promotion I suffered bullying from the previous team leader and their favourites who have all left....

From what I have read my boss has not followed the equal pay legislation.

Your AIBU - yes you are. You chose to resign from the management position so you can't then expect to keep the salary that goes with it. The place sounds like a nightmare, and I'd be looking for another job - but none of that makes it reasonable for you to expect to be paid the salary of your former position.

I can see no evidence at all that they have not followed equal pay legislation. They might employ a new manager with less experience than you - but they are still the manager and that is the managers salary.

Do you have to stay in this terrible workplace?

Apart from this being rubbish, what notice period? They have resigned from the managers role and gone back to the non-managers role (but want to keep the managers salary - which isn't going to happen) - so they are staying with the employer (albeit that does sound like a poor decision - they'd have been better staying with the managers position and then applying for equivalent jobs elsewhere).

Unfortunately he won't pay sick pay the last time I went off sick I had to basically chase him for two weeks to claim my SSP as he 'didn't see the point as its only a couple of hundred pounds'.

Just in case other posters missed it the reason I feel I should be able to keep my current salary is because he is paying a junior member of the team the same wage as me when I was team leader and even though I resigned from being a team leader the boss still expects me to do a bigger workload and he has tried to assign manager tasks to me which I have refused because he refuses to allocate me time but he does it for everyone else which is totally unfair.

I am looking for another job so can't leave until I have another job.

Just in case other posters missed it the reason I feel I should be able to keep my current salary is because he is paying a junior member of the team the same wage as me when I was team leader

Irrelevant - unless you can prove that the reason for the pay differential is because of sex. Even if it is a man, you still have to prove that the reason is because he is a man and you are a woman. Any other reason - and there are millions of them - and there is no pay parity legislation.

What he expects and what he gets are two different things. You are entitled to work the hours that you are paid for and nothing more.

I did exactly that when I found out my junior was earning the same as me I asked for a review and the boss refused and tried to justify why he paid the junior the same wage as me the team leader. He agreed to a meeting to review it then cancelled it which why I resigned I don't see why I should be doing double the work as the junior and we're on the same pay! If he changes my salary back to what it was before the promotion then I will be earning 3k less than the junior who's workload is about half of mine and they are new to the industry and I have nearly 3 years experience.

Nope its a small business we have an independant hr but only the boss contacts them we don't have their details.

I would leave but you also need to get more savvy. Block your calendar out so it can't be booked, you could have delegated all the crap jobs to the junior male.

I do block my calender but the boss just deletes it and books clients to see me which I then can't refuse or I end up getting bollocked or clients get angry. I can't delegate tasks because my junior colleague isn't fully trained. I get on well with the junior they're good worker and helpful but they can only do so much since the boss won't train them and expects me to do it whilst paying me peanuts.

Ok firstly I think you've handled this poorly.
1 it's not illegal to pay people differently for the same role regardless of experience. It is often the case that business are more desperate at one point or other or that some one plays hard ball on the negotiation side versus someone who just accepts first offer. I think I'd have gone and requested another increase to take me over the junior member of staff level and negotiated hard for it rather than simply resigning. It sounds like you leaving is probably the best way for you all around now :

I think there's a few things going on here, and you've conflated them.

It is entirely possible and reasonable for people to come to a company new and be paid more than existing staff. That's fairly standard. Basically the best way to get decent payrises is to move to another company - when you stay put, you only get small %age rises. It's annoying, but it's not illegal (unless, as someone above says, you can prove it was based on your sex or whatever).

Your boss sounds awful and not interested in supporting you/your team. I wouldn't want to continue working for him, but I appreciate that's easier said than done.

You need (or needed when you were in the managerial role) to figure out how to carve out admin team. Without knowing the details of your job, you should have been able to block yourself admin time and decline meetings etc during that.

If you don't feel the pay is fair for the role you do, you have two options. You can attempt to present to your boss a case for why you should be paid more (and it needs to be more than 'because its not fair that Dave has come in the company on more money than me' - do some research - look at information about average pay in your sector, what similar jobs are advertising, document the additional work or hours that you work, etc). Or you can look for a higher paying job somewhere else.

I think you need a new job in another firm

But myself and the junior weren't in the same role, I was their line manager and they were on the same wage as me! I did request an increase but the boss refused, then spoke to the independent hr that only he can contact and booked a meeting then cancelled it. This is the tip of the iceberg I can't reveal everything as our industry is small and I don't want to be outed but he has treated me and two other colleagues appallingly, expects us to put up and shut up and do whatever work he demands without a complaint and for peanuts.

Are you in a union?

You can't claim pay inequality against somebody paid the same.
You'd need to find somebody doing work of an equal value who is paid at a higher rate and they'd need to ha e a different characteristic yo you, eg a man.
We all lose track and get frustrated when we get interrupted constantly - it's not a mental health condition.
Sounds like you are in the wrong job IMO.

They will pay what they feel someone is worth to them, and what they need to pay to recruit or retain staff they actually want and they feel are good performers.

It's likely that they had to pay the new recruit more in order to recruit him. That's fine and normal.

Your boss sounds a nightmare, but you sound unprofessional and like you weren't capable of the Team Leader role.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect to keep the uplift in salary you were given for being a team leader without actually doing the role. I think you need to expect your salary to drop to what is was before you took the team leader role.

If you want a payrise, I suggest you make yourself invaluable and go over and above what is expected, and put together a solid, well researched argument as to why you should be paid more. This should not be about what another colleague earns, but would instead include things like showing what extra added value you offer, what the comparable market rates are and, ideally obtain an offer of employment elsewhere which is at a higher salary. Faced with this, if they consider you valuable to them, they'll likely make you an offer of an increased salary. However, it sounds like you've caused a bit of trouble with the boss, so your past behaviour may have burnt the bridges.

HR departments always side with the more senior person. They are not your friend.