The s*** is about to hit the fan

I have just been on the phone to Payroll to check everything out, and need to write about this while it is all fresh in my mind.

Basically the person I spoke to (who admittedly was not an expert in employee relations) said that staff in stores are paid for 15 minutes before and after, meaning that I should still get 32 hours a week and am owed those 10 hours from my old store. She also said that she knew nothing about a second review in order to qualify for the second installment in our pay rise.

She advised me to put all this in writing to Employee Relations at Head Office who will look into things on my behalf. I have drafted a letter which will need some work, but before I sent this (with copies of the relevant correspondence relating to these rises from Head Office - thank goodness I kept them), spoke to my Manager to let her know. It seemed only fair after all. She said that she would speak to her own boss, and the Store Liaison for the area who did the presentation to other Managers on the new pay structure and from whom she got this information re the second review. I will not see her until Saturday, as I have 2 days off now (thank goodness), and she is off on Friday, so we will talk more on the weekend.

Since it is only a week until Christmas, nothing will get resolved before then anyway, even if I do get Head Office involved, so I will hold off sending that letter until I have spoken to her. I have to give her a chance to resolve this after all. If it is confirmed that I am definitely right about those 15 minutes before and after then I have a legitimate claim for 10 hours from my old store, which I will deal with. The hours from the new store will just be paid to me as overtime, which she has the budget for anyway (so I am told). Either way, this will get sorted and I am not going to take this lying down.

My Manager also said that if she were to be brutally honest I would not have got a good score from her anyway, since my figures were below standard, but a review is, or should not be just about sales, but a review of your overall performance for the whole year. When I think back to where I was a year ago, and everything I have learnt and achieved, not to mention the shit I had to put up with at the old store (sometimes without lunch breaks at all), I think I have done a pretty damned good job and I have earned this rise 10 times over.

The decision is though out of my hands, and I will have to wait to see what her boss says on Saturday once she has spoken to him. None of this is her fault (although she should have made sure I knew about the changes to my contract and not relied on my old Manager to inform me), and I have to give her a chance to resolve this in her own way.