As some of you know, I was on redundacy warning (due to a merger) I’ve been successful in my application for another position but and here is the but.
When we had the ‘road show’ that told us all about the merger, and I quote from one of the directors ‘we now have more money than we have ever had, more buying power’ etc
my new contract will not pay travel but that is worth £2k a year to me so we are not talking small pennies.
How do I go in and say right I want the £2k one way or another!
I will add for those that will mention it, I do pay tax on it so it is not a gift it is a taxable benefit so I’d be happy if they just upped my pay accordingly but I need to put it nicely.
going to speak to the gaffer this afternoon so how would you sauy/do this without sounding like a child throwing your dummy out the pram.
I’m a Head Hunter, which involves giving a lot of career and salary negotiation advice. If you want a quick chat before you go in PM me with your number and I’ll call you.
You could note that your new contract represents a pay reduction of 2K in real terms due to the fact that travel is no longer included and you would like your salary to be increased to reflect this. You are not asking for a raise just the same remnueration as before. If you put that on the table and see what happens they can either say yes or no and you are not making a demand either way. I’d PM Cruser Chick above for some better advice though.
I tend to watch this every day for a week before my annual review. I’ve had mixed results:
At the end of the day everyone wants a pay rise, but what’s behind it?
Yes the company is doing well but what do you bring to it doing so well? Have you been implimented in a specific way in order to assist this big success? Have you moved on/grown in your job roll? Wider skill set? Alternative offers?
You have to demonstrate (other than needing more money) you deserve this money in what you have done/brought to the company.
First, you get an axe (average size, or a grinder if you can find one), then you go into the bosses office and hand him the folowing letter, whilst holding the axe in a calm manner by your side…
Dear Sir,
I have worked for (Insert Company name) for xx years. During this time I have faced redundancy a number f times, I have seen good times and bad.
Never the less, I have stood by this company, and have gone through hardship in the companies name. I have now recently been offered a new position in the newly merged company, however it does not include travel costs.This roughly equates to me having to pay nearly two thousand pounds per year out of my wages, which I am sure you will agree means essentially I am takng a two thousand pounds yearly drop in my wage.
Now, I am not a gready person. I do not wish to have a pay rise (although I wouldn’t actually say no if one was offered!). All I would like is for my wages to be altered to allow for the loss of travelling expenses, especially as you have recently pointed out that the company has never had so much money available.
I’m sure you’ll agree that this is not an unreasonable request, and I hope you will be able to make a better offer with regards to my yearly wage.
Obviously if you do not decide to change my wages to match my current wage (which includes travel allowance) I’ll chop your fuckin desk in half!..
Can you elaborate more on paying for your travel? Is this travelling around for your work? So you have to keep driving/riding to different places all day? Or is this travel to and from work? I would assume its the first one but you know what they say about assumptions
Not sure if this helps because you haven’t given the details of the merger, but maybe you should look to see if you are covered by the TUPE regulations.
Something that I think your employer could say is,“you’ve managed to keep a job, it’s not the original job you had because you had to apply for another position and that position does not include travel allowance/expenses or the same remuneration you received from your previous position”. :unsure:
I am not one of the people that will say, “you’re lucky to have a job”, I’m a shop steward at work and in an ideal world I would like to see you hold on to any bonus’ or allowances that you had before the merger, however more and more employers, big and small are using this economic downturn to take advantage of employees. I hope that it’s an oversight on your employers part and not an opportunity to save another £2000.
Can you not go with the whole “there seems to have been a bit of an oversight during the recent changes, as I’ve lost my 2k travel allowance? Can you look into this please?” If your manager knows that it has happened, then they will explain the reason for it, at which point, you can fain real concern about this, and say that you’re going to need to step away and have a think about it over the weekend.
If the boss doesn’t know about it, then your boss will need to go away and find the answers. Make sure you send the boss on their way knowing that it’s going to cause you some real problems, as unless your boss is a complete d1ck, he won’t want to come back empty handed, so there’s a better chance he’ll fight to have it reinstated.
All other matters aside, this should have formed part of your consultation period, where you had the chance to talk about any changes to your t&c’s, and (I think) unless they specifically told you that you were going to lose the 2k, then they shouldn’t be able to take it from you.
I went through something similar a few years back, where I was offered another job as part of a merger, and as part of that they took my car allowance and fully expensed fuel card off me. I accepted the job, did it for 4 weeks, found another (better paid) job during that time and then went back in and told them that I wanted to take the redundancy package and go, as I feel they’d undermined me. The offered to reinstate all of it to keep me, but I’d made my mind up, so I left.
You say above, that you want your 2k regardless. I would say to you, do you actually mean that? As the implications of that statement could be huge.
Excellent - at least you were expecting this outcome (as predicted he isn’t the ultimate decision maker) and the fact he hasn’t refused your request outright, says a lot about his intent to keep you. It might be worth following up in writing (in an email) to remind him of the key points you made - having this to hand could help him to fight your corner more effectively when he is communicating with the person who is actually responsible for this decision. If you decide this would help and want me to take a look at it first PM me again and I’ll send you my email address.
