A pay deal at Rolls Royce Rotherham ABCF guaranteeing a minimum
of 17 per cent over three years will be signed tomorrow (Friday 5
May) with Unite, the country’s largest union.
Unite said that the package which will benefit about 120 staff
below the management is ‘one of the largest
deals that Rolls Royce (RR) has agreed in recent
years’.
The union said that the deal was a recognition that the pay rates
were among the lowest across the RR group and this had resulted
in workers at the south Yorkshire site, which makes single
crystal turbine blades, leaving for better jobs.
Unite regional officer Doug Patterson
said: “While small in number in terms
of the workforce, it is one of the largest deals RR has agreed in
recent years.
“It has come about because the company finally
accepted what Unite had been saying for some time that paying the
lowest rates in the group was contributing significantly to the
high rate of attrition.”
The package includes
- Grade salary ranges and pay points to increase on 1 March
2017 by 2.8 per cent; on 1 March 2018 by 2.5 per cent; and on 1
March 2019 by 2.5 per cent.
- Then an increase on 1 March in subsequent years by the
uncapped retail price index (RPI) with a minimum of 2.5 per cent
based on the mean average of the November, December and January
figures.
- Fixed shift allowances will increase this year by £300 - £600
per year which equates to about eight per cent over the three
year period.
Doug Patterson added: “We
regard this pay deal, following tough negotiations, as a success
in these challenging economic times and it demonstrates the
strong value of union membership.
“What individuals will receive depends on whether
they are ‘shop floor’ or ‘professional’, but we estimate that for
most employees that it will be a minimum of 17 per cent over
three years.”
It was in 2015 that Rolls-Royce marked the official opening of
its new £110 million Advanced Blade Casting Facility (ABCF) at
Rotherham.
