The union’s negotiators are recommending the final offer we have received from the company, although we have made it clear to the company that there are some significant aspects to the offer that leave us with significant cause for concern.

We are now going to ballot you on this offer. The ballot will open at 4pm on Monday 30 January and close at 4pm on Tuesday 7 February.

We will be holding calls/meetings with members to enable you to ask questions about the offer (which we view as important as the offer involves a fairly important new approach to the setting of pay rates in 2012 which we do need to explain).

The company’s final offer letter and an appendix to it is attached, as is the union’s initial response to it, which sets out the areas of concern to the union.

We are recommending this offer as:

•         We have made some very important progress in one aspect of the union’s overall pay agenda – the company’s offer is far more transparent than previous offers, and enables you to see, for the first time, what the offer will mean to each of you. This is an important breakthrough and should enable us to make further progress in future.

•         The overall budget on offer (2.75% for 2012 and 2.5% for 2013) is broadly consistent with the range of increases across the UK private sector at the moment

•         We have secured an additional 0.25% of budget to address concerns around differentials, and the company has accepted in principle that it should in future seek to maintain a better approach to differentials than hitherto. This represents the outcome of the interim review and should result in some 50 people securing increases to provide them with a better differential than hitherto.

•         There are some welcome movements to the pay range maxima and minima

But we do have some significant concerns about the offer, as you can see from the attached letter from the union in initial response to the company’s offer. In particular:

•         We do not believe the pay range for the Customer Service role at MPG 2 is high enough for the IT and telecoms space.

•         There is a complex ‘legacy’ of people being paid often quite widely differing pay rates for the same or very similar roles, which this proposed settlement will not be able to do a great deal to address

•         In our view, there is going to be a need to give greater pay progression to those low in their own pay range – but this is not really affordable within the budget.

In short this offer represents some significant progress on our agenda but there is more to be done.

Greater transparency

It might be helpful if we set out why the greater transparency contained in this offer is important and how you can understand what the offer will mean for you.

In previous settlements, we have agreed an overall budget and a very generalised approach to how that money would be spent. Many of you have quite rightly commented that it is in practice not possible for you to take a view on what this really means for you. This offer is somewhat different.

Although we have agreed some increases in MPG 2 and 4 (and other) pay ranges, these don’t in themselves mean a great deal – except importantly in relation to range minima since anyone currently earning less than the range minimum will move to the new minimum (or in line with the increase indicated by the matrix if that would be higher).

We have also agreed for the first time to a matrix setting out the range of increases that will be paid to each individual depending on your position in the pay range for the job family you are mapped to. In addition, the annex to the company’s offer letter sets out the pay ranges for each job family.

How will this work in practice? Here is the proposed matrix:

	APR 1	APR 2	APR 3	APR 4
Upper Quartile against market	0 – 2.5	0 – 1.5	0 – 1	0
Upper Middle Quartile	2.25 – 3.5	2 – 2.75	1.75 – 2.5	0
Lower Middle Quartile	2.75 – 4.5	2.5 – 4	2.25 – 3.25	0
Lower Quartile	3.5 – 5.5	3 – 4.5	2.75 – 3.75	0

The pay ranges for each job family are set out in the annex to the company’s offer letter.

Take the example of an MPG 4 in engineering, where the range pay quartiles are (Lower Quartile) £40,644 or below; (Lower Middle Quartile) £40,645 to £43,534; (Upper Middle Quartile) £43,535 to £46,867; and £46868 and above (Upper Quartile) . If your current salary is £45,000 and your APR is category 3, then you should get an increase of between 1.75% and 2.5%.

Take another example – a Customer Service Operations manager at MPG 2. If you are currently paid £24,000 pa, and your APR is category 3, your pay is within the Lower Middle Quartile so the range of increases available to your reviewing manager will be 2.25% to 3.25%.

Please take the time to read both the company’s letter and our response before voting in the e-ballot. We also urge you to attend one of the meetings or conference calls we have set up to give member the opportunity to ask questions and discuss this offer before you vote.

The following meetings and calls have been arranged:

Saturday 28th January, 3pm: Pay meeting with Graham Pollard and Steven Roberts GS07 Bury

Monday 30th January 11.30am: Pay meeting with Steven Roberts and the Bury union committee S01 Bury

Monday 30th January 12.30pm: Pay meeting with Ben Marshall and members of the O2 South union committee, details to be confirmed separately.

Wednesday 1st February 12 noon: Pay Call with Steven Roberts and the Bury union committee 322/07720322322 then 07736595902#

Thursday 2nd February 12 noon: Pay meeting with Shaun Connor Willow B Preston Brook and dial in 322/07720322322 then 07736595902# 12:00

Friday 3rd February, 1pm: Pay meeting with Shaun Connor Willow B Preston Brook and dial in 322/07720322322 then 07736595902#

Saturday 4th February 3pm: Pay meeting with Graham Pollard and Steven Roberts GS07

In addition to the dial in details our principal officers from Glasgow, Gemma Bottomley and Claire-Ann Craig will be arranging a local meeting….look out for updates in the coming days.