Annual Leave Policy disappointment

[tomtum]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and wantedto share the recent experience I had with my employers. I have been working with a very busy Women's organisation for just under a year, and quite happily until a few weeks ago. The Service Manager and Management are always banging on about 'equality' and everyone being equally valued and having a voice in this particular workplace, and quite honestly I had no reason to doubt it until 10 months into my employment. What a mug I was. During the course of my duties I discovered that almost 50% of the workforce received 29 days Annual Leave plus Bank Holidays, whilst the rest of us received only 20 days plus Bank Holidays.

 

I checked the Annual Leave Policy,(electronically filed under 'Current') and this clearly stated that all employees receive 20 days A/L plus Bank Holidays. then I checked the Staff Handbook, and this too stated everyone receives 20days plus BHols. Delving a bit further, I discovered the 29 days A/L Policy filed/buried away in a file called 'Old'.

 

I spoke with my line manager, who confirmed that there were two different policies in operation. Apparently, 3 years ago they were finding it difficult to maintain the service with all employees on 29 days annual leave, so they set a limit of 20 days for any new employees. So, now we had the situation where 10 of us are working harder and shoring up the Service for almost two weeks longer per year, whilst the other 9 enjoy almost two weeks more holiday. There was also no opportunity for those of us on 20 days to work up to 29 days through an increase on length of service scheme either.

 

I met with the Service Manager and told her that it would have been better for me to handle if I'd been given this information at the entry point, and been allowed to make an informed choice, and that it was misleading to display only one Annual Leave Policy in the Staff Handbook. She came back at me saying that I didn't receive equal pay, so what was my problem? I'd signed my contract and accepted 20 days. I explained I was quite happy with pay scaled to level of responsiblity, but the inequality demonstrated in the annual leave policy was very disappointing and would have made a difference to my accepting the post, partly because I was raised by a trade union shop steward.

 

Since then, the Annual Leave Policy has been re-worded to cover both entitlements, so has the Staff Handbook.

 

Also, it was announced shortly afterwards, that Staff will receive 25 days A/L after 4 years of service anyway. I asked where this was written down, and was told that it was in the minutes of the Directors meeting. (Hmmph, this meeting hasn't taken place yet!, however, this improvement is now stated in the Annual Leave Policy also:) ).

 

So, yes I stated my case and things have improved for the betterment of the 20 days people, but my motivation at work hasn't. Talk about depression! I feel ill thinking about how trusting I was, and how deceived I've been. I've gone from going the extra mile everyday, to summoning the energy just to turn up everyday. I'm angry and resentful, and don't really trust The Service manager, my line manager or the Directors anymore. It just seems so morally wrong that everyone does work of equal value(or so we're told), yet we're rewarded so unfairly.

 

Any comments will be very welcome.

[rory32]

I have removed your duplicate thread.

[poppynurse]

I have to say that it is not uncommon for terms and conditions of service to change in response to the demands of the business and new employees put onto new contracts whilst old employees t&cs are protected. At least they have taken some action to improve things for new employees

[kennythecelt]

Yes I agree with poppynurse.

 

This might be referred to as preservation and may include various parts of conditions of service.

[bed32]

In my experience there is nothing unusual about that. People may have different annual leave entitlements for a variety of reasons, either historic ones, or TUPE, or just because they negotiated a special deal when they joined.

 

The only reason to complain would be if the distinction were made on the grounds of sex, race, age, union membership and so on when it might be covered by discrimination legislation.

[Sidewinder]

Agree with the above. Differing policies exist in many areas of the workplace. Take for example those industries where employees were lucky enough to be in a final salary pension scheme, but where the practice has had to be stopped for financial reasons for those joining the company more recently. This is just one of those things and at least you now only have the opportunity to earn an extra 5 days for long service.