Equal Pay Advise Please

[Japtune]

Hi,

Would really appreciate if someone can give me some advise regarding to equal pay.

I have been working as night shift for the past year. In my salary, there is 15% which is add up on my basic salary as shift allowance. E.g. my salary is £40,000 and thats include my basic salary of £34,000 and my shift allowance of £6000.

However, recently I found out from my colleauge on Day shift (normal 9-5) is getting paid the same as me even without the shift allowance (£40,000 Basic). Even more ps off is the new joiners from the day shift is earning the same or more than me. Our work are the same, duty and responsibility are also the same.

I have spoken with my manager even she said that our basic salary is lowered on purpose for all night shift workers.

Do I have a case here to get what I am entitled on my salary?

Thank you again and any feedback would be appreciate.

[Gargamel]

Hi,

Difficult this, companies may have many reasons for pay policy. This could include factors such as it may be easier to find night shift workers than day shift - for example

Generally Equal pay legislation is geared toward ensure equality of pay between genders.

It is not uncommon to find two employees at similar grades doing the same job but on different pay rates. They should in theory be broadly similar.

This sounds like it is a company policy, so you need to find out if all the night shift workers are on lower pay - ie are all you colleagues also on lower money, or is it just you ?

It is always hard to give advice in these instances, but I would guess your first step would be to ask you manager and the HR team for a pay rise to bring you into line with the day shift.

There may be a company pay policy, which you could ask for ?

[Japtune]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

I do understand in most cases, equal pays regarding to gender. However 90% of the night shift workers currently are asian to cover the asis market. I am not sure if this will be relevant.

I also had a chat with my night shift colleagues and all of their pay has been lowered which is the same case as me.

Having spoke to the manager for the pay rise to bring our pay in line for couple of times, however she just keep it delay and did nothing.

With the company pay policy, is that something I can ask HR to provide?

I do not think there will be any in place as I have spoken to my manager about it.

[Gargamel]

Japtune said:

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

I do understand in most cases, equal pays regarding to gender. However 90% of the night shift workers currently are asian to cover the asis market. I am not sure if this will be relevant.

I also had a chat with my night shift colleagues and all of their pay has been lowered which is the same case as me.

Having spoke to the manager for the pay rise to bring our pay in line for couple of times, however she just keep it delay and did nothing.

With the company pay policy, is that something I can ask HR to provide?

I do not think there will be any in place as I have spoken to my manager about it.

Very few firms have a formal written pay policy which they will share with employees, but if the company has made a decision to pay the night shift less money, they need to be clear about the reasons for doing so.

I cannot think of any legislation that covers this situation, companies are able to pay people different amounts of money if they wish.

But I wonder what the underlying reasons really are. I assume there is no union or other works council?

[Japtune]

Hi,
Thank you again for reply.

The reason behind this I think its down to asian worker as they can get away with that, but that is just my personal thought.

I understand company can pay people differently base on their experience or knowledge, but this apply to all night shift workers.

There is no union or work council. I am thinking is it worth to contact a solicitors specialist in Employment law or getting goverment authorities for advise.

Any suggest where I can go for advise?

[Gargamel]

Find a employment specialist and see if the free consultation can reveal if there is a case.

There are several lawyers on the forum, so perhaps bump this Monday when they are usually around.

Interesting case, not a situation I have come co across before. Where entire shifts are paid at two separate rates.

[Japtune]

Thanks,

Hopefully someone can shed some lights on Monday.

Most piss of is even my manager admitted that our salary get lowered on purpose and said this is not right, but no one is doing anything about it. I just want to get a fair pay!

I will be searching if there is any government body to fix this as well.

[98elise]

I'm not a lawyer, but I've worked in similar situations.

In my case people doing the same job were paid whatever the market dictated at the time they were employed. Pretty much everyone negotiated their own pay so everyone was on different pay rates.

Unless there is any discrimination going on (race, gender etc), or the company has a defined pay structure, then you are going to find it hard to force the company to do anything. They don't have to pay you extra for nights, so it sounds like they are just making it sound like you are getting a bonus for doing so.

[edc]

It sounds like you are angling at a potential race discrimination claim. Are the Asian people on the day shift being paid as the rest on the day shift? Equally is the night shift exclusively Asian or are there other races working then too with the same pay as other night shift workers?

[Gargamel]

I had a dig through the Equality act last night. Basically unless you can find a specific example of someone in a "protected" group being discriminated against then it is unlikely you have a piece of employment legislation to fall back on.

What will prevent this claim would be for example if you had an protected employee in the day shift, on day shift money.

There is nothing I can find in law that compels companies to pay two people the same wage, but they might be open to an equality claim if the one paid lower is a protected person (ie non white, able bodied male of hetereosexual orientation)

That said the company could still defend itself from such an action, if its overall pay policy was consistent and fairly applied.

[Japtune]

Thank you for all your input.

I have just spoken to ACAS for some advise. They advised that equal pay is more like a gender thing. I have further explained the situation and they said there is a potential race discrimation there.

There are currently 3 chinese workers in the days and evenings which I think they have been under pay as well. However I am not able to confirm as since people will not openly talk about their salary.

There is a british colleague in the nights which get very favourism by my manager i.e get more pay rise and promote.

In addition to that, I do not think there is a pay structure in place.

What do you guys think? Do I have a potential case here?

[Gargamel]

Possibly. But without some hard facts it is going to be difficult to know.

1. What outcome are you looking for? Going legal could be expensive and potentially extremely career limiting. Though that in itself shouldn't necessarily put you off. Just be aware once in the open, it can get messy.

2. Can you find hard evidence of differences in pay between white British and other demographics on the same shifts ?


A good employment lawyer might be willing to listen, and advise you of what methods of evidence gathering are open to you, for example, is it possible for a court to compel the company to hand over the last payroll data ? I am not sure.

If you are purely thinking of securing for yourself a pay rise and equivalency with the day shift, then I think you should speak again to your manager and ask for a pay increase to bring you into line with the other workers.

[Japtune]

As you imagine, I am quite fed up with my current company due to this. Is the case once opened, will I able to close it? I never been through the lawyer thing so I have no idea how it workes.

1) I will be looking for get paid in a equal manner and get back the difference which I am suppose to get for the past employment period. Nothing more, nothing less.

2) It is very hard to find evidence as you can understand no one wants to tell their pay to other people.

I will have an interview for other job soon. If I get hired and quit my current job, will I still able to bring this on?