They've advertised my position.... with a pay increase!

[Mammie81]

My employer has advertised my position internally this week. Only for the maternity cover (Ive only been off for 3 months) so theres no issue there. However the pay scale advertised has gone up a whole grade and Ive not noticed any change in the job spec.

a) Can they do this?
b) Can I ask for the inflated pay scale when I go back?
c) What happens if the job spec does change while Im off?

Lucky I checked the site, isnt it! First time Ive done it and the closing date is in 2 days!

I think other advice will be better here, but my instinct is that this makes a very good case for you to say that you have been underrewarded. They haven't made the job redundant, which is a plus, and they also have made it clear that they are happy for what you were doing before is worth more to them. There is some case here, if they don't give you the new wage afterwards and I think a case for underpaying you before you left. Hope others who have more experienve with the law re maternity cover, undergraded pay etc will post soon.

They can do this, pay is up to individual negotiation. Just becuase someone doing your role gets paid more doesn't mean that you can get awarded for them "underpaying" you.

Have you considered that if the role is temporary for 6-9 months the increase is to temp people who may not have a job when you come back?

So I'd go with:

a) yes
b) yes but they don't have to give it to you
c) depends if your off for over 6 months and what the job spec change is.

The reason i am very suspicious is that they introduced these scales 6 months ago. It was a very drawn out process with everyone being called in and told where their job fitted. Mine specifically was in the lower scale. Surely if the job is the same, the scale remains the same, regardless of individual negotiation? When i asked at the time, apparently for my job to be classed higher, specific duties had to be added to the spec. They have not.

Its a well known charity btw. The scales are very strict.

I don't think that anything you've said indicates that they've done anything wrong TBH. It's very common for maternity cover to be higher paid because of the uncertainty. It's not even a fixed term contract, in theory you could turn around at any point in the next nine months and give your notice to return, leaving the cover out of a job. If they have strict grades, upping the grade may be the only way to up the pay.

If you believe that that job has been mis-graded, that's something to take up with them separately.

Sorry

As an experienced temp cover person I also know you have to hit the ground running in the position and pick up immediately with very little training, therefore you sometimes need to be more experienced or qualified than the person on leave, and hence you need more money to move into a riskier role.

I wasn't entitled to the same benefits as some of my covers, and made one girl a bonus of 25% of her salary while she was on leave - I didn't get a penny in bonus! Nice for her thought as her husband got made redundant so it came in really handy.

What Ribena said.

The law doesn't get very restrictive with pay at all, there's no such claim as underpaid or underrewarded. The only legal restrictions with pay are a) not to discriminate against a protected group (which includes specific equal pay claims), and b) to pay at least the minimum wage.

Otherwise what to pay someone is entirely between the employer and the employee; if something is 'unfair' it doesn't make it illegal.

However strict an internal salary structure is, there are always ways of getting round it if absolutely necessary.

Having said all that I certainly think this is worth taking up with them when you return, assuming you go back to the same job.

Tbh I knew the lady who was covering me originally had asked for more and as all the other applicants were rubbish, they agreed to increase it for her. She has obviously left after just 3 months.

However I thought that was within the scale which my job fell, I didnt realise they had increased the band for the role entirely regardless of who was filling it.

I still dont think its right : I fall into the PA scale and the job is now paying an executive PA scale. Its a leap of around £5 - £15k

I think it depends on sector. In the public sector, which is often mimicked by charities, they would not advertise a temp post at a higher grade. Well not IME. There wouldn't even be a mechanism to do so. A post is at a grade. Not an expert though.

I dont understand how it is now an executive PA scale, the role is the same. They'd never raise anyone above the scale when we all asked re: pay increases. We were to be paid within our scale unless our roles changed. We were even shown what typical changes had to be made to the roles to increase the scale...

well you have a case then - if the role hasn't changed it was poorly graded beforehand - and you should come back at the advanced grade for sure and the fact that they have acknowledged that it was a higher graded job means that you might be able to pressure for a goodwill payment on your return on the basis that they are now acknowledging that the job is in fact a higher graded position - talk to a union.