My brother has been working for a company for over 5 years. His original contract states the role he was hired for and his pay. Over the years he has taken on increased responsibility and different/additional roles and has had pay increases.
Last year a new manager was appointed to his team (the guy Mr X) came from a sister company. He was hired to make changes in the comany and improve performance etc etc. He wasnt up to the job and at the start of this year my brother was being given more and more of Mr Xs tasks to perform.
Six months ago the company moved Mr X to another dept as they werent happy with his performance and my brother was told he was being given the managers job. He was told it couldnt be formalised until they "sorted out" Mr Xs contract.
He took over all the tasks of the managers role, all the staff acted like he was the manager - reporting to him etc. The company deal with a large multinational co and he was introduced to senior members of the management team of that company as the new manager. He dealt with other companies in the industry as the manager.
A few days ago he was called into a meeting with management and Mr X and told that the dept that mr x has been moved to is closing down and Mr X is coming back to the role of manager.
My brother was obviously shocked, Mr X has had no contact or part in the running of the dept for the last 6 months, my brother has been doing it all.
They want him to continue doing what he is doing but Mr X will be the manager and my brother will report to him.
He is very humiliated, his collegues have heard the news and are all whispering about what could have happened. He feels this is a demotion with no discourse between himself and management about his performance. He feels everyone will assume he was doing a bad job and so Mr X was brought back.
His performance has been excellent, he has been constantly praised for the good work and effort he has put in and there are physical results to back this up but you know what rumours are like. We both know they are doing this because Mr X contract was never amended to reflect his new position and because the new dept is being closed he is assuming his "old" role and they are hoping my brother will lie down and take it.
He was never officially made manager but surely acting as such in full capacity and being introduced as such counts for something? This has made his work situation very difficult over the last week, he feels his reputation has been ruined (its a very small closed industry and word travels fast). He had planned on seeking a career with the multinational they deal with sometime in the future and had been working hard to impress them in meeting but he feels when they hear he is no longer manager they will assume it was a performance issue (or something worse).
My brother also set up another dept 2 years ago and he earns a performance related bonus from it. This again was never written in a contract. Over the last year the comany have repeatedly refused to pay this bonus, they have tried to remove his entitlement to it altogether but when he wrote to them complaining they backed down.
However he is now 3 months overdue bonuses, despite constant emails from his requesting it be paid they keep refusing and trying to add new conditions to its being paid.
What course of action should he take and has he any rights?
Thanks for reading.
Last year a new manager was appointed to his team (the guy Mr X) came from a sister company. He was hired to make changes in the comany and improve performance etc etc. He wasnt up to the job and at the start of this year my brother was being given more and more of Mr Xs tasks to perform.
Six months ago the company moved Mr X to another dept as they werent happy with his performance and my brother was told he was being given the managers job. He was told it couldnt be formalised until they "sorted out" Mr Xs contract.
He took over all the tasks of the managers role, all the staff acted like he was the manager - reporting to him etc. The company deal with a large multinational co and he was introduced to senior members of the management team of that company as the new manager. He dealt with other companies in the industry as the manager.
A few days ago he was called into a meeting with management and Mr X and told that the dept that mr x has been moved to is closing down and Mr X is coming back to the role of manager.
My brother was obviously shocked, Mr X has had no contact or part in the running of the dept for the last 6 months, my brother has been doing it all.
They want him to continue doing what he is doing but Mr X will be the manager and my brother will report to him.
He is very humiliated, his collegues have heard the news and are all whispering about what could have happened. He feels this is a demotion with no discourse between himself and management about his performance. He feels everyone will assume he was doing a bad job and so Mr X was brought back.
His performance has been excellent, he has been constantly praised for the good work and effort he has put in and there are physical results to back this up but you know what rumours are like. We both know they are doing this because Mr X contract was never amended to reflect his new position and because the new dept is being closed he is assuming his "old" role and they are hoping my brother will lie down and take it.
He was never officially made manager but surely acting as such in full capacity and being introduced as such counts for something? This has made his work situation very difficult over the last week, he feels his reputation has been ruined (its a very small closed industry and word travels fast). He had planned on seeking a career with the multinational they deal with sometime in the future and had been working hard to impress them in meeting but he feels when they hear he is no longer manager they will assume it was a performance issue (or something worse).
My brother also set up another dept 2 years ago and he earns a performance related bonus from it. This again was never written in a contract. Over the last year the comany have repeatedly refused to pay this bonus, they have tried to remove his entitlement to it altogether but when he wrote to them complaining they backed down.
However he is now 3 months overdue bonuses, despite constant emails from his requesting it be paid they keep refusing and trying to add new conditions to its being paid.
What course of action should he take and has he any rights?
Thanks for reading.