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Pay 2022: Ballot
Pay 2022: Campaign Archive
Negotiations for Pay 2022 began in late 2021 and carried over into the new year. As always, Unite’s pay claim called for a fair pay rise for all workers. The bank’s offer saw a small portion of the bargaining unit receive a 6% pay rise. Under this offer, however, 85% of workers would receive far lower pay rises.
The cost of living crisis was on the horizon in 2022 and by October that year, inflation would reach a 41 year high of 11.1%. While no one could have predicted the scale of the cost of living crisis, the Unite National Company Committee felt that the bank’s ‘full and final offer’ was so completely out of touch that we could not in good conscience recommend members accept it. However, given the the financial difficulties that many of our members found themselves in, we felt that the offer was not poor enough to explicitly recommend a rejection. As a result, we balloted members on a neutral basis with no recommendation whatsoever.
To say that this displeased the bank would be an understatement. In the end Unite members would overwhelmingly reject the offer. this rejection was not communicated at that time, however, as part of a series of negotiations to arrive at a revised offer that partially improved the offer. The revised offer was ultimately accepted by members.
This newsletter was first published in January 2022.
Have your say on your pay – NatWest Group final offer
Unite has recently conducted 2 weeks of pay talks with NatWest to try and agree a pay solution that we can recommend to our members and meet the needs of the employer and the hardworking staff who have supported the bank through unprecedented times.
The bank has put forward their highest offer to date, but this still falls significantly short of the claim we presented based on your feedback, and agreement has not yet been reached. Details for comparison are below, and the time has come for you to have your say on whether this full and final offer from NatWest is acceptable to you.
| OUR CLAIM | NATWEST OFFER | |
| Covid recognition payment | £1,000 | £0 |
| Working from home allowance | £10 per day | £0 |
| Total rise of 6% for cost of living and performance | 100% of staff | 15% of grade A and B staff |
| Salary ranges | All ranges to be improved by 4.5% | Between 1.9% and 2.1% change for circa 9,800 people (a number of ranges were moved by 2% last year) |
| Minimum salary for new starters | £20,000 | £19,000 for A2 roles £20,000 for A3 roles |
| Minimum underpin for low paid workers | £800 | £600 |
| Non consolidated Cash Payment for people above the pay range | £800 | £500 for 3 ratings £525 for 4 ratings £550 for 5 ratings |
| Managerial (C Grade) staff | Removal of ‘up to’ terminology from the matrix | Retention of ‘up to’ (NatWest informs us that feedback from managerial staff is overwhelmingly supportive of this.) |
| Matrix payments | Removal of matrices and performance-related pay | Retention of pay strategy |
The Ballot – PLEASE RESPOND BEFORE FRIDAY 11 FEBRUARY
When we asked you what your expectations were for pay, 97% of you told us that a pay offer below inflation (a real-terms pay cut) was unacceptable. Unfortunately, since our claim was submitted in November inflation has continued to skyrocket, and RPI now sits at over 7%. Unlike previous years there is no recommendation to accept nor reject this offer from the Unite pay team or our National Company Committee and is presented on a neutral basis for your decision.
| If you vote ‘YES’ to accept the offer: | The bank will apply their offer as detailed above. |
| If you vote ‘NO’ to reject the offer: | We will register a ‘first failure to agree’ in line with our process with the bank. (Available on the intranet) |
Pay 2022 is in your hands.
Members can contact the Unite NatWest team at rbsinfo@unitetheunion.org.
Further reading
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