You don’t have to fear down-banding

By Paul Farrer

Down-banding describes the situation when and employer asks you to accept a lower pay and benefits package to avoid making you and/or others redundant.

Clearly when you have bills to pay, debts to finance and everyday living expenses geared to a certain pay scale any cut is a horrible prospect. However if the alternative is losing your job then it may well be the better option. When times are hard redundancy payments are often kept to the minimum and if you have not been employed long could be very little.

If you accept down-banding and moving to a lower pay scale then there is nothing to stop you looking for a new job with better pay and benefits. In addition you are in a much better position looking for a job when you are employed. Psychologically employers often, wrongly, favour employed candidates over redundant/unemployed applicants. The bottom line is that all organisations have to cut their cloth to market conditions and regrettably that will mean some having to accept down-banding which has to be better than unemployment.