Will this stand?

[newcastleapple]

I work FT for a pretty large well known company.
A couple of months ago, my immediate supervisor advised me that due to good performance I was getting a pay rise of around 10%
Nothing was put in writing.it came of the end of a successful meeting.
Now, the entire company have been awarded a pay rise of 3.5%
I got a letter confirming my new salary yesterday.
The new figure doesn't include the sum my boss agreed with me, just the company one?
Could this work in my favour as had the original increase had been confirmed in writing, it would have excluded me from the lower raise (rule about a pay increase in pre ious 6 months)
I know the easy answer is to ask my boss directly, but surely he can't withdraw what he verbally agreed?
I'm honestly not greedy/grabby, but it's a terribly underpaid job as it is, so every little helps!

Erm, a "verbal agreement" counts for diddly squat I am afraid.

Obviously you need to ask him what's going on... But there's nothing you can do if he says he was wrong, or just denies it ...

True, I don't think he will, I think more so he will kick himself that he DIDNT make it official, and I only got the lower out of the two
Oh well....let's wait and see I guess!

Why "wait and see" rather than ask? If it's an error it will be more easily resolved if you raise it promptly.

I meant wait and see until the end of next week what's on my wage slip!
I won't be sitting on it

If you haven’t had a letter, then I would very much doubt you are going to see a 10% payrise, I have never seen any company give a payrise without producing a letter. I think you might as well ask about it now.

A verbal contract is legally binding.

But
(a) it is very hard to evidence and
(b) there is nothing to say that the manager had the authority to offer a payrise anyway. If they didn't, the employer isn't bound by it. I can offer as many pay incentives as I like at work, but nobody will be getting them because I don't have that authority.

You need to query this right now with your manager.

He should not have said this if he did not have the power to negotiate for his team and get the pay rise agreed on your behalf.

Indeed, Quveas. In those circs, I think I'd have zapped an email straight back to the manager after the meeting, saying "Just to confirm what we agreed..."

But I wanted to query the assumption that because it was said, it somehow doesn't count. It does – but as you say, the problem is proving it.