Forced to work one's way up in Palladium (6)
I believe the answer is:
prised
'forced' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'way up in palladium' is the wordplay.
'way up' becomes 'rise' (I've seen this in another clue).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'palladium' becomes 'Pd' (Pd is the chemical symbol for palladium).
'rise' inserted inside 'pd' is 'PRISED'.
'to work one's' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prised that I've seen before include "Levered (forcibly)" , "Forced open with a lever" , "Jemmied, levered" , "Levered open by spider" , "Forced open with leverage" .)