An SoR member in the Midlands has won a pay banding dispute with their employer after an eight-year battle.
The member was originally matched as a Band 7 but believed their combined role of reporting radiographer and superintendent was not being fully recognised.
Following a series of grievances begun in 2012, the Society became involved in 2016 after the member underwent an unsuccessful job-matching process.
A grievance was submitted but the Trust continued to claim that the member had been correctly banded. Following an appeal, the Society submitted a Subject Access Request (SAR) to the employer under GDPR, asking for all emails and documents relating to the employee over several years.
SoR Regional Officer Richard Pembridge said: ‘The documents disclosed as a result of the request revealed that, far from treating our member fairly, managers within the Trust had deliberately misled them and colluded to avoid our member from being awarded a Band 8a evaluation’.
They revealed that in May 2016 the member had been assessed without their knowledge as being a Band 8a. The outcome of the panel was given to the departmental managers but they kept the outcome secret and sought to change the assessment.
Within the SAR was an email from the manager to the job evaluation team stating he ‘did not believe there was need for an 8a role’. There then followed a four-month campaign by the manager to change the job match to reduce it to a Band 7.
Mr Pembridge said: ‘I could not believe the evidence we had that showed the complete disregard for the job evaluation and matching process’.
The line manager submitted a further job description to the job evaluation team - also without the knowledge of the member - and requested that it be re-matched. This resulted in a Band 7 outcome.
Following lengthy discussions over several years, the Society was able to demonstrate that the Trust had treated the member unfairly. The Trust agreed to honour the 8a banding outcome from 2016 and backdate the pay to the original grievance date of 2012. A condition of this agreement was that a new job description be agreed and submitted to a matching panel within another Trust.
Mr Pembridge added: ‘It was essential that we had that agreement, given the collusion and breakdown in trust and confidence with the employer’.
The agreed job description was sent to a neighbouring Trust and as a result the post was matched at an 8a level.
The member said: ‘I can't thank the Society enough for all of your help, support and professional acumen in dealing with this. I am certain that I could not have achieved this alone’.