The Beginning:I started a new job a few months ago as a contractor. The jist of the job is troubleshooting, someone has a question about the program, I have an answer or use company resources to find the answers. As a contractor we got paid 23.50 an hour and it was GREAT, we were well paid and happy and that reflected in our work! An important note to make is that it's a work from home job so we rarely talk to each other as is except for our team. We all loved to communicate but one day we get pulled into a meeting about Contactors becoming full time employees which is awesome RIGHT?
The Problem: Naturally the first thing that was asked was about pay, they told us to Teams (a messaging room) a certain person from the HR department to talk about pay but to NOT discuss with other employees about pay. They made it clear that it would be in violation of the company's rules. Myself and 3 other co workers do exactly that and I get told I'd get paid 19.00 that's almost a 5 dollar decrease from my Contactor pay and something told me that wasn't right. One Coworker let's call him Andy is very much so anti-work and we started plotting. We messaged a few coworkers saying that we needed their numbers for a group spreadsheet Incase we need need to contact each other. We set up a groupchat and we started asking what start pay they were quoted. Most were quoted $18 and $19 dollars and hr including myself but Andy and another co worker (both men) were given $21 an hr as their start pay. Obviously we were pissed as a group and decided to bargain with the new found information!
The Results: Myself and the other 3 co-workers each took turns emailing the HR rep we all talked to, to ask for a meeting with her 1 on 1. We didn't all read off the same script but basically we all told her in our own way “A 5 dollar reduction simply wouldn't meet my needs and there is another work from home job the Contractor wants me to do after this one that pays about the same. Is there any way I can get a higher pay rate?” Her knowing full well if a WHOLE team is dropped on the MIDDLE of busy season would be an absolute catastrophe for the company and the new hires would be less likely to stay even after a week being bombed with 20 to 30 calls a day. It didn't seem like she liked it but a few days after our meeting I got a NEW full time agreement with my new pay of 21.50! Yes it's not 23.50 but our team left no man behind and made sure every one of us was set for success. NOT TALKING ABOUT WAGE ONLY BENEFITS THE EMPLOYER REMEMBER THAT!