On 21 March eligible Ericsson FSO employees will be able to see on their electronic payslips a new payment for enhanced holiday pay.

This payment has been agreed with Ericsson after long and difficult, but ultimately successful, negotiations led by Prospect on behalf of our members.  We have intervened on members’ behalf repeatedly to keep this issue moving forward.

Those negotiations followed a number of legal judgments, including a particular employment appeal tribunal, Bear Scotland v Fulton joined by Hertel & Amec v Woods & law and others.  Claimants were successful in arguing that statutory holiday pay should include regular payments which they would usually earn while working.

These judgments built on existing case law, and the European Working Time Directive that looked to protect the principle that individuals should take their holiday and not suffer a financial detriment that could discourage them from doing so.

While it has taken a great deal of work by Prospect and Ericsson to move negotiations forward we believe that we have now reached an excellent agreement that predominantly provides an enhanced holiday payment to reflect overtime worked.  It also includes the ex-Vodafone outdoor allowance as another non-annualised payment.

This agreement provides our members not only with back pay but also a simple, agreed mechanism for making future payments that is fair to them and that Ericsson is able to process easily.

Having negotiated similar agreements elsewhere we believe the agreement is fair and transparent, is in line with best practice and at least our assessment of the legal requirements delivering a better outcome for the vast majority of members then would have been possible through individual legal challenge.

A document containing answers to frequently asked questions has been prepared that gives the background to the legal changes that prompted this payment, explains how agreement was reached with the recognised trade unions and also how the payment has been calculated.  We recommend you take some time to read that document along with this message.

The agreement provides for backdating an enhanced holiday payment for overtime worked from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 and relates this to statutory holiday taken (20 days).  This is the payment that you may be receiving in March 2017.

Future years will see payments made in March again based on overtime worked in the year before then.  So overtime worked during 2017 will be used to calculate an enhanced holiday payment in March 2018, for example.

The vast majority of Prospect members in the FSO will receive a payment, as they work overtime, with the average payment being near to £500 we believe.

This work has been conducted by the union and your representatives behind the scenes for some time, and we hope that this outcome will be a welcome surprise for you and your colleagues.

The agreement reflects the positive relationship Prospect has with Ericsson that enables us to reach agreements that benefit members.   To maintain that, Prospect needs to maintain a strong union membership among those groups covered by Prospect recognition agreements - 

Employees on heritage MBNL terms and conditions
Employees on heritage Vodafone terms and conditions
Employees on standard Ericsson Managed Services and/or EE terms and conditions (this includes new starters, for example all Field Operatives).

Please take the opportunity to discuss Prospect’s work with any of your colleagues who have not yet joined.  This agreement should be a good illustration of the good work that we do.  They can join online at www.prospect.org.uk/join

New Prospect Officer

As the more observant among you may have noticed, we have had a change in Prospect officer and I have taken over from Steve Thomas, who has been promoted. Our thanks go to Steve for his work over the years and as you will see from this brief, his last gift to the branch is to resolve the holiday overtime pay issue. I look forward to working with you in the future.

At the time of writing this briefing, we have not officially started pay talks so the usual communications will follow once we are in position to brief and ballot members.

Goodbye to Dave Rennie and John Hough

One of our long-serving reps and branch secretary, Dave Rennie, is due to leave soon and we should record our gratitude to Dave for his service and work on behalf of the membership. We also record our thanks and good wishes to John Hough who is no longer a rep following his promotion within Ericsson.

If you have any questions about the payment that are not answered by the FAQ document please contact national secretary, Steve Thomas at [email protected]. He concluded these negotiations on behalf of members, along with your new full-time officer, Anna Farey.

We plan to hold a branch meeting after Easter so if you are interested in taking on a representative role, please get in touch with me by email at [email protected] or call 01455 555200.

Your reps are: -

Ken Harwood (FE) – [email protected] – 07785 360071

Carl Fisher (FE) – [email protected] – 07770 321923

John Bramble (C3) – [email protected] – 07881 917507

Ben Townsend (FE) - [email protected] – 07770 352013

Mike Cude (FE) – [email protected] – 07782 329878 (Health and Safety)