I guess my employer has the upper hand on this but I thought I would check with forum members. I was recently passed over for promotion despite being the longest serving and most experienced member of the team and a younger guy got the post. It was all done quite secretly and when I found out, it had already happened. I complained but was told that it was the decision of our division's big boss in the US, so basically tough luck. Feeling quite cheesed off by this episode I applied for and got a good position within another division of the same company. Everything appeared to be going well for my transfer, then at the last minute I was told that the same guy in the US has blocked me leaving his department. So blocked from promotion and blocked from transferring to another post - even though the other department fought quite hard to get me. I guess this is commonplace in the US with their relaxed employment laws, but I was wondering whether I have got any legal claim to this being unfair in the UK? Obviously we have no union Thanks

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/06/royal-mail-parcel-promotion-bigger-gift-christmas

Hi, Been trying to google an answer to this but with no luck The Organisation i work for recently advertised for staff to apply for promotion , they are quite strict about attendance (understandably) and it always used to be the case that if you had more than 4 periods of absence in the 2 years prior to applying for promotion - it automatically barred you from applying . I had been told (but am unable to find anything in writing) that an employer can no longer hold sickness against you when applying for promotion ? But if you applied for a new position and were shortlisted , if it came down to Mr A and Mr B and one had 0 absence , and the other had 5 days off sick , then Mr A would get preference . I have been told by a manager although they can no longer use sickness to stop someone getting promoted then now use the term "reliability" ?

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for any advice. I work in an organisation (ok, the NHS), at a large general hospital. Over the last 5 years, we have been merged with 2 other, similar sized hospitals, each 30-40 miles from us. This has produced 1 very large organisation to replace the three previous bodies. We are in the process of standardising pay, structure and conditions across the board. This has led to the creation of 3 new junior management jobs in each of the three areas, in my specialism. I work as a supervisor, so these new jobs would be the natural next step for me to take. My problem is this. These jobs require a qualification higher than I (or anyone else in my part of the organisation) hold. The custom has always been, to apply for the job, and if successful, be awarded the job on condition of obtaining the qualification as soon as possible. I assume this was to save money on training/educating people further, who then may never seek promotion, or even leave the organisation with their expensively provided qualification. So I applied for the jobs, only, to my surprise, to receive a letter at home from my boss, saying he regretted he couldn't offer me an interview. It turns out that one of the other organisations HAD been sending their employees to college routinely, and many of them, even on the shop floor, were qualified already. Their boss insisted, apparently, that no-one should be interviewed without this qualification. As we are 'harmonising', that meant that this rule had to be applied across the board. As a consequence, only people from from one area of the organisation are allowed to apply for any management jobs. These jobs in my area have now been awarded to people from that area, while we are prevented from applying. The posts will not be filled for two more weeks though. It seems very unfair that, due to operating under different protocols for the last 15 years, we are disadvantaged in this way. It feels that the goalposts have been moved at the last minute, and all the knowledge and experience gained here over the years count for nothing now, through no failing of our own. I am a union member, but they have been no help so far (too busy, seemingly). Ideally, I would like the appointments to be postponed, and the interviews re-run including those of us who were unfairly (to our minds) excluded last time. Does anyone have any ideas how I might go about achieving this? Sorry for the long post, but it is a complicated situation, and the disappointment is crushing. Thanks for your patience, if you have read this far!

Afternoon, Recently at my place of employment, a large PLC construction company, 2 positions of Contracts Manager have become available within our region. I have worked at the company for over 6 years and am a grade below this working as a Senior Site Manager with a proven track record for delivering success on behalf of the company. A position has been internally advertised which i have applied for and been selected for an interview later in the month. On speaking with our HR department, 1 of the above positions has been `given` to a site manager (a grade below myself) without internal advertisement or interview. Unfortunately, this position covers the area of our region that falls within the natural locality of where i am based, the other that has been openly advertised would involve far too much travelling for myself to be economical or realistic to the business. The company is happy to interview me but the reality is that i could not possibly be offered the position. The whole process does seem to contravene the companies `equal opportunities policy` stating that all employees should be shown equal fairness when the opportunity for promotion arises. I have lodged a grievance and am awaiting a reply. Thanks,

Hey everyone, sorry for the long post ... I have been working in the same company for 14 years and at the beginning of last year I was offered a secondment in a different department. I was then offered a full time job in that department halfway through last year. Naturally, I spoke to some of the other people in the department to find out what would be a reasonable wage, another manager mentioned 32-35k and the others confirmed so I set a figure in my head of 33k. When negotiating the salary in June the manager asked me what I currently earn. I told him it was 22k but I get additional cash benefits that make it up to 30k and I would lose those benefits on moving. He said it would not be a problem. I thought they might try to offer me the same wages so I spoke to him again the next day and told him that 30k was what I currently earned and that I was expecting to earn 33k, he said that may be a problem because there is a limit on the percentage that someone's pay can go up by if they do an internal transfer (which sounds totally stupid I know, but this has been confirmed by HR as being 9% before requiring senior management sign-off). He said that we may need to start me off on the 30k and use the December pay review to move me up to 33k. Between June and November nothing much happened, apart from the bi-weekly update as he walked past my desk or in a meeting ... "It's still with XXX the senior management, waiting approval / sign-off / whatever." So I just patiently waited and carried on working (hard). Then, in November I got an acceptance letter offering me 30k and, because I had built a good working relationship with him, I stupidly assumed he had everything in order, so I signed it and gave it to HR. I know I SHOULD have checked with him, but I assumed that he was looking after it all. December came and went and I received no pay review, this is apparently a mix up in the system because I moved departments and no pay review was done for me. I spoke to my manager last week and he claimed that what he meant in that conversation was that my wages would "go up proportionately, in line with company scales, if I had met my objectives for the year." He then said that my objectives were set by my previous department before I moved so it was nothing to do with him. I know that this is not what he said, he clearly told me my wages would move from 30k to 33k. He kept saying "Did I put it in writing?" which obviously he didn't and it has really made me lose trust in him. I have since found out that the department is increasing in size and they are employing new starters from outside the company ... guess what the salary offer is? 32-35k. Great, so now there are less qualified new starters earning more than me. So, I suffer from stress and anxiety and I have had to take some time off work to recover, but I am losing sleep, not eating & worrying about what I can do to get my wages moved up to what I was promised earlier in the year. If they don't increase my wages then I want to move back to the department that I was working in previously but I know this might be difficult. I guess the other option is to leave. Whatever happens, I cannot continue working for this department on that wage because it makes me feel sick knowing that they should be paying me what was negotiated. If I do move back to my old department or leave then they will have to employ someone else probably on higher wages than I was asking for so I'm hoping they will understand that and raise my wages to what was spoken about when they realise the cost of having to employ someone else. I have a meeting with HR next week, but it has already been said by my manager that they can't just put my wages up when I ask for it. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing before? Is it a common tactic that employers use to get cheap work? I'm in a real mess here because I really like working for that company. The company itself is a good solid company, obviously, otherwise I would not have been there for so long, but it seems a lot of the managers are really tight, sometimes it feels like they are out to get me. My last manager was just as bad, maybe the managers are given bonuses depending on how much money they save.

Hi all, As the title says, I was given a promotion to "Supervisor" approx. one month ago at my part time job, accompanied by a raise for which I negotiated with the Assistant Manager. Promotion and raise were given at meeting between Assistant Manager, Head Bartender, Floor Supervisor, and myself, during which I was given new responsibilities including mentoring newer staff, I was asked to come into work earlier, etc. I took the minutes for this meeting. After meeting, Assistant Manager met with each of us individually to negotiate raise with us. He made me an offer, I made a counter-offer, he accepted, we shook hands. I go into work that week as supervisor, everything is right as rain. Fast forward to this week. I need to open the till as I've forgotten to give a customer his change. To do this, I need to make a sale, even though I had been told that supervisors' till keys allowed supervisors to open tills without making a new sale. So I go into the office. General Manager is there and I ask if he can register my key with supervisor privileges. He asked me why I needed them. To open tills, as the previous supervisor was able to, I said. Then he told me I wasn't a supervisor. I said Assistant Manager had promoted me and given me a raise a full month ago. General Manager said he had heard nothing about this and asked me to leave so he could talk to Assistant Manager. Five minutes later Assistant Manager pulls me off the bar and asks for a chat. Says he never had authority to promote staff or give them raises. Effectively, I've just worked for a month on minimum wage thinking I had been promoted and given a raise. I told Assistant Manager and General Manager in clear terms I was upset and did not understand how something like this was allowed to happen - I had explicitly told Assistant Manager during meeting a month ago that I needed a raise to make the hours worth it as I am also a full time Masters student. Surely this situation is illegal. Worse, this is just the latest in a slew of managerial missteps, including failure until November to distribute pay slips, and almost consistent failure to pay correct amount for hours worked - for me and all other staff. All in all, I am a little worried about the shadiness of this place, and, given the behaviour of management, unsure about how productive discussions with them about this would be. What do I do?

Hello, I'm looking for a bit of advice, hopefully someone can help? I applied for an internal vacancy back in March, following my companies procedure set out on the vacancy page. I followed this up several times and had responses citing that applications were being processed etc. Fast forward to last week where I am told by a colleague at my branch that this role had been filled, and this without me being offered an interview. The manager of the department I applied to has emailed me saying he never had info on my interest, despite me emailing him 2 days before the job was offered to someone else and the several emails to HR regarding the vacancy. HR called me 1/10/12 saying that they had spoken to this manager and he has told them he phoned me in April and that I withdrew my application (an application he knew nothing about?!), this is a complete lie as I was still emailing in May! The role the manager is relating to is a completely different role that I turned down in October 2010 as it was based roughly an hour away from my home and I had no means of getting there and back. I strongly believe that the manager is aware he has done wrong by me and is trying to shift the ignorance onto me by suggesting I turned the job down?. I have several emails regarding turning the role down from October 2010 which were between myself and the same manager so how could he mistake this for a vacancy that was advertised 5/6 months later! I have emailed the manager AND the HR contact I had to send my CV to asking if they can offer an explanation as to why my application has been overlooked/ignored but I have not received anything back, other than the HR phone call. I have ALL emails relating to the most recent role I applied for, both sent and received, and to back up the truth of events for the role I showed and interest in back in October 2010. I also believe that the person who has been given the role I applied for is a former colleague of the manager of the department, although without access to our companies employee history I have no proof, only what I have been told. The only problem I have is that I really don't know where I stand and I'm not sure what route to take next, do I follow my companies grievance procedure?, knowing that the way they work and try and sweep things under the carpet nothing will come of it? I've looked at several websites but things are not any clearer, can anyone help? Thanks for reading

Good evening all, a friend of mine refered me to this site as he uses you guys to resolve issues and has great success. I am looking for advice as to where I stand with regards to being denied the chance to interview for promotion, despite meeting the qualifying criteria. This is compounded by the fact the job was posted whilst I was on leave, and upon return the link to the application failed (even though thejob was only open for a week, and company policy is for two weeks). When the HR manager finally placed a manual application in for me the interviews had been held (still with in the two week period), I was contacted today by my area manager to state that I wouldn't be getting an interview (even though I am above the promotional criteria in the matrix they use). He infered that they already had a successful applicant and reserve, this is despite the job still being open in the two weeks. I am looking for advice and direction as to my options, this experience has made me want to leave my company as this is my area managers decision, I qualify for promotion and joined the company to porgress. I fell let down, angry, upset and frustrated, all I wanted was to build a career and now within the space of a 30 minute conversation I want any new job that is available. Thanks in advance.