colleague doing same job but from home

Working in a job 6 months now. However, the job is all online, so technically the job could be done from home. I asked this during my initial interview and was told it wasn't possible. However, recently the company has hired a new member who will be allowed to carry out the job from home after he completes this month on site.

That leaves the rest of us (5) doing the job from the office, while the new guy will be doing the job from home.

What is your point, are you upset that you were not offered this option, you may well be yet, maybe after your probationary period ends, maybe there is a subtle difference to the new hires role and your own....?

There are a number of us not happy about it. The job roll is the same and same rate of pay.

my point is , is it legal?

What could be illegal about it?
Have you asked if you can work from home as well? Will you ask when you are there 12 months ?

I guess the boss decides, to say it is legal or otherwise does not really impact here.your employer has decided to employ some at the main office and maybe starting now for reasons of space or otherwise to try something different with this new hire, it is hard to see how you or the others feel aggrieved, it sounds like a business decision to me which could yet be for a trial period, very forward thinking, embrace the change.

no - they couldn't get anybody else to fill the role who would work from the office. I had asked at my initial interview was it possible to work from home and was told at the time that it wasn't possible. but now suddenly it is possible because they'd be screwed if they didn't let this guy work from home because they'd lose the contract. can't be one rule for one person and a different for another. it's total BS

Just to clarify, you asked at your interview if you could work from home and were told no. Have you asked since?

Aside from that are you quite sure you want to work from home? Full time working from home can be onerous in many ways.

johnmck said:

can't be one rule for one person and a different for another. it's total BS

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Course it can. Might be BS, might be unfair, might cause all kinds of problems that they're shortsighted to allow but there absolutely can be one rule for one person and a different for another. Unless you're working in a heavily unionised area or under some kind of collective agreement then each contract is individual and the only one that's any of your business is your own. You weren't able to negotiate any home office conditions and your new colleague was. Could be because of a change in policy or because they were desperate and could equally be because new colleague is a better negotiater. Don't think I don't sympathise, by the way, I do think the company is being a bit unreasonable. But "it's not fair" doesn't really have as much of a place in business as it possibly should have. Until you can see it a bit less emotionally then I wouldn't suggest broaching the subject with management.

I was in a similar situation once when I found out that new people coming in to the job I was doing (except I was now also doing an acting team lead role and most of the admin work of the department) were being paid substantially more than I was (several thousand more per year). I did bring it up, along with the other person in the same situation and we were told there was no budget to increase our salaries. I didn't much like the job anyway and had only stayed because it was otherwise a great place to work (people etc.) so I decided it was the push I needed to look for something I actually wanted to be doing. Short-sighted of the company as they then needed to pay someone else more than they had paid me to just cover my basic job and had no-one to cover the extras I had been doing but while they had budget for new hires, there was none for existing salary increases. Makes no sense but that's just the way it was. So unless you're prepared to put your money where your mouth is and leave, you should think very carefully about insisting that you are entitled to the same as your new colleague.

johnmck said:

no - they couldn't get anybody else to fill the role who would work from the office. I had asked at my initial interview was it possible to work from home and was told at the time that it wasn't possible. but now suddenly it is possible because they'd be screwed if they didn't let this guy work from home because they'd lose the contract. can't be one rule for one person and a different for another. it's total BS

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So you accepted the role knowing you could not work from home.

They later needed another person to carry out the same function, but could only get someone who would work at home, and between them, they agreed a contract that included this provision for that person.

So yes, what they did is perfectly legal. Who knows, the other person might even be paid a lot more than you are, which is also perfectly legal.