Cost of living pay rise

[samjardine]

Hi

Is it legal to grant Cost living pay rises to only certain employees?

thanks, Sam

[Dave A]

I suggest it's a badly put question.

It's legal not to grant any COL pay increases.
It's legally possible to have different pay increments for different categories of employees.

But that doesn't cover all the scenarios that may fall within your question by a long shot.
Could you perhaps be more specific about the circumstances?

[Justloadit]

There is also a matter of which industry too.

[samjardine]

Thanks for the reply

Our director was to grant a CPI increase of 5.6% to the office admin staff but exclude the sales staff from this increase. We work in the advertising industry.

my question is, can a company grant a CPI increase to only part of the workforce. If they can, is there legislation that allows this. Can the company legally justify such a move? I feel this could be discriminating against the sales staff.

regards, Sam

[HR Solutions]

Perhaps the sales staff are not performing ..... Not really any legislation to say if u give some an increase you have to do it for all. Maybe the company cannot afford it so perhaps they shouldn't give any increases at al !

[Dave A]

my question is, can a company grant a CPI increase to only part of the workforce. If they can, is there legislation that allows this.

Are you in sales by any chance? You have a knack for phrasing the issue to suit your desired outcome.

Again, the question is fundamentally flawed. What you must seek is law that prohibits this sort of differentiation.

[samjardine]

Hi Dave

Thanks for your reply. No, I'm not directly involved in Sales I manage the staff including those benefitting from the CPI increase and have been told to implement this. Whether my question is fundamentally flawed or not you obvoiusly know what i am trying to say. So with this in mind 'What you must seek is law that prohibits this sort of differentiation' is correct - Is there such provision in the basic terms and conditions of employment act or any other type of labour legislation here in South Africa.

[Dave A]

Even the newly revised Employment Equity Act (which probably gives the best chance of prohibiting such differentiated practice) focuses on equal pay for equal work and doesn't get drawn into differentials across different categories of work.

If there's sales commissions involved, there's even a case for arguing differentiation may be justified.

Other practices that are common and may attract criticism, but I've yet to hear of being challenged successfully in CCMA or court as being ultra vires, is the changing of sales commission structures, and Directors giving themselves higher increases and bonuses compared to the lower ranks of staff.

Let's see if someone comes up with anything though - one never knows...

[PlatinumWealth.co.za]

Perhaps the sales staff's remuneration is a lot higher than that of the admin staff and the director feels it's needed to bump them up a level. /

It is allowed. However, like Dave is pointing out there is too many variables at play and not enough information here.