Colleague earning much more, for the same job

[LadyGombrich]

Hello

I work in the public sector. have known for a while, through reliable gossip, that my colleague is earning (much) more than me. But my life has been up and down and I've not done anything about it, couldn't face it.

Background: They were on this higher salary doing a specific job and the post was made defunct because some funding ended.

So they were seconded into our department and stayed on their nice high original salary.

I was then brought in, at a lower salary.

For more than I year we have been doing the exact same job.

Suddenly a couple of weeks ago I decided to speak to my manager about it

Manager said "it's on the radar and the jobs will be aligned at some point" but that there was a restructure happening so this wasn't high on anyone's agenda apart from mine (!)

I asked if that might mean my colleague's pay would go DOWN and the manager said it was unlikely.

I know I need proper advice, I've contacted the union rep, not heard back but my hopes and dreams about a pay rise are running wild now so I thought I'd check the hive mind:

Two questions, for anyone who's been here / understands this stuff

-- maybe the whole secondment thing scuppers my plans?

-- if not, how likely is a BACKDATED payment and where might the back date be (ie. the date I came into post a year ago, or the date I raised it with my manager?)

I will chase the union again this afternoon but I know the rep is rather overworked so not sure when I'll hear back

Thank you!

When I was in the public sector I worked in a new dept where 4 people who all did the same role where all on different grades as they had been moved into the roles having been at risk of redundancy. Their previous grade and pay was protected for two years.

We often have PIO (Present incumbent only) salaries due to historical reasons.

Having also bought companies we TUPE staff over and have to respect their T's and C's which often means they are out of kilter with other employees. You can question it but there's no guarantee that you'll be successful.

Obviously I don’t know the full details but it sounds like your colleague was contracted to do a certain salary for a certain role. When they scrapped her role it doesn’t sound like he/she was made redundant. They are still working there and you didn’t mention a payout. They carried on working for the same salary but their role changed. Whether they got a new JD or not is not clear but they have certainly been doing a different role.

If your line manager thinks your role could be regraded for greater parity then hopefully they are right. But it seems unlikely to lead to backdated pay for you.

The most obvious solution would be to match the other person to a role that better suits their skillset but perhaps that is not possible, which is why they haven’t done that already.

Where you have been moved to a lower paid position it is often that you retain your salary but you won’t get increases. Reverse the situation - you get recruited for a position paying £40k, after three years that role ends for whatever reason and you are moved to another department, would you take a pay cut?

I have worked in public sector where lots of different companies merged & TUPEs occurred.

I worked in a dept as a new employee. Other staff were TUPED & were on considerably better wages & T&Cs. At interview I was happy with the salary & T&Cs. We all did the same job. There was nothing done to align everyone's wages or T& Cs.

If you feel that you are under paid, suggest
look for a job elsewhere.

I just left public sector. I was paid about £20k more than my colleagues at the same grade because of the way the civil service pay rules work.