Family Business and Grievence?

[tooth_fairy]

Hi all,

Can anybody please advise/help with an issue I am currently having.

Basically- I am working in a firm owned in part by a member of my family, this person is a director in conjunction with another male. I work in an office with 3 other men. The company has been trading for 21 months.

My role is partially administration and what you could call 'deputy management', I take on tasks from the manager who is not one of the 2 company directors, when he is not about and indeed when he is about, I basically share his job duties, including sales and negotiations of sales.

I have worked there paid since May 2007, previously I had provided unpaid support in the same capacity, as a family favour, and in April they asked if I would provide that same role continuing on a more permanant and paid basis, I agreed and they agreed to pay me £7 per hour, and a review after 3 months with commission rate after this time to be agreed. I work 14-21 hours per week and get paid weekly, the hours depend of company needs.

Increasingly I have noticed that I am being excluded from important client conversations, my work is supposedly going down hill and I have had a number of jobs which I used to carry out, taken away from me, without explaination. I am not kept informed of developments, which are vital to me being able to carry out my job, calls from my clients are not passed to me or a message taken for me to respond to in my absence.

I have also noticed that 2 of the several sales I agreed have been assigned now to the manager and taken away from me, this means he will get the commission (the other sales commissions will go to the company), which brings me on to the next point.

I asked the family member who employed me to discuss a comission package as I was doing a lot of sales chasing and indeed had made several sales of my own, but as there was no package, it was not clear how much commission I would receive.

His response was the company was a bit too quiet to agree a commission package for myself. I also made him aware of the fact my duties were gradually being taken away from me, he said he would discuss it with the other members of staff. I asked him to do this in early September.

He has not, as far as I am aware made any effort to speak to other members of staff, as the situation has become one that now I am just the coffee maker and washer-up, with nothing to do.

I again asked the family member to observe the situation and possibly discuss with the others, a way forward. He did observe the situation and acknowledged there was one and promised to remedy the situation. This has not happened.

I today asked him again whether I could discuss a comission package, as I was now predominantly taking on the managers role as is increasingly out of the office. Again I was told things were too quiet to warrent him speaking to the other director. The other director isn't in our office very much and thus doesn't see what I do, don't do etc, so I don't feel comfortable approaching him as he will most likely ask me to approch the other director and family member.

Today I was told, by my family member that we were taking on a new member of staff, considering how we are supposedly quiet, this was a bit of a shock.

I was asked to type up his contract of employment and I noticed that he was being offered a specific commission rate on lesser duties and hours than myself these are: £9.20 per hour, 17% commission per sale, for 12.5 average hours per week.

I asked again, before I left today whether I could discuss a more appropriate salary package as I am consistently left in sole charge, I am making sales and bringing in money for the company. The last reply was if I don't like it, I could leave and that as I was working for a family member, he was uncomfortable approaching the subject with the other director as he would be being seen as favouring family members. I asked him directly if he was refusing to review my position and salary and he said yes.

I was upset by this and I said to me it was showing a lack of respect for my position and my ability to be able to take sole charge regularly and making sales.

Speaking to a former colleague from a previous employer, she said it sounds like sexual discrimination, I was being passed up and ignored in favour of male colleagues, but I am not sure.

As this business is a family business, should I just accept I am being taken for a ride and cut my losses and leave?

I am being paid less than everyone else, I do not have their benefits of employment and I am treated like dirt most of the time.

I am reluctant to leave as I need the money as a student but the situation is really getting to me and I came home last night and cried for ages about it!

Any advice would be appreicated.

TF x

[cal37]

well even working for a family member you have rights!

I do not believe you could make the sexual discrimination claim stick, you said yourself that your family member said "he was uncomfortable approaching the subject with the other director as he would be being seen as favouring family members"

Its clearly not sexual discrimination. However you do have the right to have your claim heard.

When you were asked to work there, was the statement about a review and commission package put in writing or just verbally?

Even if it was verbally it still formed a contract that has to be honored.

Therefore So my advice is,write a grievance letter outlining your concerns,state you are not happy with the fact that the written/verbal terms agreed when you started are not being honored.ask that they convene a meeting not later than 28 days from the date of your letter, to discuss this matter.

[cal37]

Sample letter

Dear……………. Date………………..
I am writing to tell you that I wish to raise a grievance.
This action is being considered with regard to the following
Circumstances:
………………………………………………………………… ………………………
………………………………………………………………… ………………………
………………………………………………………………… ………………………
………………………………………………………………… ………………………
I am entitled to a hearing to discuss this matter. I am entitled, if I wish,
to be accompanied by another work colleague or my trade union
Representative. Please reply within (not more than 28 days of the date of
this letter.
Yours sincerely
Signed …………………… Employee

[tooth_fairy]

Thank you for replying and for the letter.

I can understand your point there, however, I am not being paid the same as the males who are working there, for doing the same job, I am the only female in the company. I thought that this consitituted some form of discrimination? I stand to be corrected though.

I am starting to outline my issues in writing as suggested.

My contract is in writing and I may been working there since it started but I have only been being paid and thus contracted since the begining of May 2007.

[cal37]

The trouble is you might find it hard to prove you have worked there unpaid.Not impossible but makes your claim harder.

Just because you are paid less than the males does not automatically make it discrimination. Are they doing the same job, were they taken on after/before, whats in their contracts etc etc. You can put in your grievance that you believe you are being discriminated over the males and see how they respond.

I am not saying its not discrimination but as i pointed out, you said in your post thats hes uncomfortable approaching the subject with the other director.

Ok is the pay review promise in your contract or in a letter offering you the position?

It would help your case 10 fold if you have the promise in writing.

[tooth_fairy]

Yes it is and I type up the contracts of employment for new/exisiting employess and it is a standard contract listing duties, pay and terms, in typing these up, all the male duties and exactly the same as my own, it is only the pay which is different.

I am considerably more experienced than one of the males, who is being paid more than me, and I have the same amount of experience as the 'manager' as we have been there the same time and he comes from a different work background to what the company is trading in now, he admits freely that he often has little or no experience in some of the matters which arise, so I am hesitant to say he has more experience than myself, I believe we would be on an equal footing work wise.

One of the male employees is older, one is younger.

I have everything in writing so far, contract wise.

[cal37]

Hi

I still do not beleve you have a claim for sexual discrimination, however i do believe you might have a claim for equal pay.

Under The Equal Pay Act 1970 and Article 141 of the EC Treaty regulate sex discrimination in pay.

'Pay' under the EQPA includes not only wages but also other contractual entitlements such as holiday pay, discounts, vouchers and subsidies.

'Pay' under Article 141 covers any benefit contractual or not which is received because of the employment relationship.

The principle of equal pay applies to each separate contractual term, if necessary by inserting a corresponding term in the woman's contract.
Occupational pensions are 'pay' and are covered by the Pensions Act 1995.

The EQPA applies from the first day of employment regardless of the number of hours worked per week and applies equally to men and women.

Two jobs are like work if they are of the same or of a broadly similar nature and the differences between them are not of practical importance in relation to terms and conditions of employment.

Whether the work is sufficiently similar is looked at in broad general terms rather than by a minute examination of the tasks involved.

Whether there are significant differences depends on the nature and extent of the differences, how often they occur in practice and whether they are of practical importance in relation to the terms and conditions of employment.

Work can be like work even if the woman does more work than the man she compares herself with.