CWU secures top end pay deal for IBM members

Telecoms & Financial Services August 31 2021

Members in IBM have unanimously accepted a CWU-brokered pay deal which delivers an across-the-board fully consolidated rise of 2.5%.

Set against a relevant RPI inflation rate of 1.5% in March, the settlement is backdated to April and covers a single CWU-represented bargaining unit covering a small group of members working on an outsourced BT contract covering its mainframe service.

IBM’s “final and definitive” offer – which was given an enthusiastic thumbs up by member in a consultative exercise last week –  ranks amongst the best awards offered anywhere in IBM this year.

Thanking members for their wholehearted support of the deal, CWU national officer Sally Bridge –  who was assisted in the first pay negotiations to have been conducted with the US multinational computer hardware giant since  last April’s TUPE transfer by TFS Executive members Ken Woolley and Dave Stuart – said: “Despite the volatility of inflation in recent months this is a fair and reasonable settlement that compares favourably with the prevailing level of pay settlements being achieved across the UK economy.

“It does not include an increase in shift allowances, as IBM has a policy that does not link allowances to pay increases, but the overall final offer is over and above average pay increases in IBM and stacks up as above average pay increases in general.”

Following members’ acceptance of the deal, IBM has confirmed the backdated increase will be paid in October’s salaries. Most of the beneficiaries are still based in BT buildings across the country, often in small groups with a larger cluster at the Sheffield Command Centre.