Work increased my responsibilities but reduced my take home pay

pug_

Bit of a long winded one this, but here goes.

A while back an internal position came up where I work which I applied for. I did the interview and all went well.

A short while later there was a re-organisation between a few departments and I was 'lifted and shifted' to the position I had applied for without being given a choice. When I asked about my wages I was told there would be no change to my base wage, but I would no longer be on-call for emergency work and as such would loose out on my on-call allowance.

My on-call allowance makes up a significant percentage of my take home wage and had I been successful in the interview and told I would loose that but not be compensated with a wage increase I would have had no choice but to refuse the position I was applying for.

Also the new position has significantly more responsibilities associated with it, and I know from looking at on-line job sites, and talking to others in the industry, that the base salary for someone with my experience and qualifications is considerably higher than what my current employer is paying me.

When I ask for an explanation or justification nobody is able to provide one. I'm being fobbed off with excuses about budget not being available, yet I know of two people recently who left the company for similar reasons who were immediately offered the money they wanted for them to stay (they refused), so the money seems to be available if their hand is forced.

It seems to me that the company is paying the minimum money they believe they will get away with, but what I want to know is if there is anything I can do to try and force their hand to either justify why wages are so far below the industry standard? or even convince them to increase my wages to be in-line with the rest of the industry?

Also does the fact that my take home pay has been reduced against my will by a forced change in job responsibilities give me any kind of legal comeback?

In case anybody is wondering the company I work for is a large, soulless, multinational, profitable corporation. So excuses about budget not being available are just fabricated inter-departmental b*ll0x.

Anything you can do? threaten to leave until you get a pay rise

3DataModem

bluewolf wrote: »

Anything you can do? threaten to leave until you get a pay rise

Don't threaten - apply for other roles outside company.

Then go to your boss and say you've "market tested" your salary and believe you should be on more.

I do the same when my staff ask for more; I look and see what I can replace them for. Then we both know where we stand.

pug_

No I'm not going to threaten, I have my CV out and if I get a job offer I'm happy with I'm just going to go. I've told my line manager this and he understands. He also agrees with me on this, he has tried, but there is very little he can do as his manager isn't even based in Ireland.

Management have never disputed that my wages are below industry standard, they're just not going to pay me any more. In my view it's because they believe they will get away with the wage they are currently paying. What they are saying is that there is no budget. What they are also saying is that wages are benchmarked across Europe, meaning wages in Ireland are comparable to Spain and similar countries. But I know the UK is benchmarked separately, specifically so they can get a fair wage (They have a union in the UK, we're not allowed have one) so again it strikes me as an excuse to see what they can get away with.

The thing is I don't particularly want to leave, I'd prefer to find a way to make them see sense. I'm not the only one either, there are plenty of others in a similar situation. I'm also not the only one talking about leaving. If even a fraction of the people threatening to leave actually go then they'll wind up having to hire more people at a higher wage before the end of the year and those people won't have the experience any of us have.