Getting dragged into a wage negotiation that could result in me losing money.
For context, I was headhunted for a job that had around 70-80 colleagues 5 years ago. It was at a time that there was a national shortage of this profession so I was took on on a slightly different contract to suit the days I can work, only I am on this contract. I'm in the union. We were TUPEd over to another company 18 months ago with the terms remaining the same. A wage negotiation was due almost immediately but as a sign of "good faith", we opted not to fight for anything.
My colleagues are 4on4off on a 43hr weekly contract.
I work Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun on a 45 hour contract.
We're all on the same hourly rate. The job is job&knock and I believe they said the average hours worked is around 36.
Ultimately this means I work more days than everyone and don't get paid "fairly" for it, which I am fine with.
However, the second (and final) offer from this year's wage negotiation (their initial offer was 0% which felt like a bit of a pisstake considering our goodwill last year, but I digress) is actually a significant increase in hourly rate, HOWEVER, they will reduce everyone's weekly hours to 39.375.
This works out to a weekly pay increase of about £2.50 for everyone (lol) and decreases my pay by about roughly £40.
The reason I'm posting is because I messaged my Union rep about how this would work for me, and I was told "I dont know", so essentially im expected to vote on something that I won't know the ins and outs of. Id be exceptionally happy to drop a day every 2nd week to fit in and drop down to the same hours as everyone else but I approached the company about this 6 months ago and it was declined (because they know they get more out of than they do anyone else)
So where do I go with this before voting?
(I cant change work days, it's a childcare thing)
Thanks in advance