Lateral vs. demotion

sjb1023

Is there a standard definition for these terms? If an employee moves to a position with a lower start and end rate (range), would this not be a demotion, even though we are keeping compensation the same because it falls within the new range?

System

I think it depends where both positions fall within your organizational chart.

If the job requires less education, experience, and has less responsibility and accountability, it may be rated in a lower range but not be considered a demotion unless the employee loses a higher rank in the organizational chart.

Compensation is not the criteria that determines rank.

Hope this helps. (I usually confuse the issue)

"Sam"

crawfod

We have assigned all occupations to different pay grades, so suppose there are 5 different occupations in Grade 12, then a lateral transfer would be changing from one of those jobs to another, in the same grade. We allow transfers to keep their current rate of pay.

A demotion would be changing from, say, a grade 12 to a grade 11, or any other lower grade occupation. Voluntary requests to go to lower grades result in their accepting the starting pay for the new job, regardless of experience. (Part of this rule bothers me, but I haven't pushed for a change yet. We have some older employees who are ready for less responsibility, but not ready to retire. They wouldn't mind stepping back and letting a younger person advance, which would be good for the younger ones, but our rule makes that cut in pay too great for them to do that. So they labor on and the younger ones have to wait their turn. On the other hand, if you allow such employees to step back and still retain high salaries, you eventually may have a harder time getting someone to take on the higher levels and greater headaches for perhaps not a lot more money.)