(Please read if you can I feel like I need some advice here. I’ve been advised to get a lawyer but idk?)
So yeah, just what the title says. I work for a unionized grocery store, but it’s super clear that the union is just in the super large company’s back pocket. A while back my immediate boss promised me a raise that I never got so I spoke to their boss, the store managers, HR, and a union rep and nothing came of it. I never got a raise or anything like that and when I met with HR, they said that due to my position, I had a pay cap, and that I was unable to exceed 13.75 an hour.
I was extremely pissed off because I had been working there steady for three years (no disciplinary issues, no writeups, hardly call out) and hadn’t gotten any raises since my first year of employment there. I’m literally an assistant manager for my department, but higher ups said there was nothing they could do about my boss lying to me so I basically had to drop it.
That leads to now, a few months later.
So our department has been over staffed lately, and the store manager put a hiring freeze on us specifically. There were hardly any hours for all of us to have our bare minimum of 18 hours. Somehow, out of the blue, we get a new hire. We’re rightfully all pissed off and the store manager tries to figure out why the hiring manager hired another employee without notifying them first, especially since the department had a hiring freeze and no hours to even give to the new employee.
Long story short, the new hire tells me (and I never asked any of this by the way) that their significant other’s father works in HR but in a different district in the company and got them hired on and our own HR person pushed for them to be hired. You know what, fine, nepotism happens it’s life there’s nothing I can do about it.
THEN they tell me that they’re getting paid almost FOUR entire dollars more than me.
I didn’t react or say anything to them when they said it to me, but when they clocked out and left I felt so sick I had to take a break. I literally finished all of my closing duties early and just stood there in shock and disgust.
I literally was just training this person because they claimed they had experience with our line of work (to get extra pay) but when they arrived they hardly knew how to do anything. I don’t want to toot my own horn but I really give as much as I can muster to my job because I like it there. The job isn’t too strenuous and I love my store management. This instance coupled with the fact that I’m doing more work than this trainee (making orders, unpacking trucks, making sure the department is clean and up to standard) and I can’t make any more than I do now makes my blood boil. I almost cannot physically look at them and I feel horrible because I know it isn’t their fault. But even since the training period had been up they’ve been a subpar employee and I’m tired of coaching them, especially when they make more than I do and I’m literally their BOSS.
Honestly, f*ck this place. I’ve already found another job that is offering me more money, but I’m tenured where I work currently and I would have more opportunities for overtime and other small benefits here. I was thinking I could strong arm them into paying me more because everyone has quit since the hiring freeze and if I leave, the department won’t be able to run and won’t even have enough people to help train new hires so they kinda need me. I’m just trying to figure out where to go from here. The blatant lying and disrespect alone makes me just want to quit immediately though.