‘Final’ pay offer for ISS members goes out to ballot

Telecoms & Financial Services, ISS-Facilities July 13 2021

Tuesday 13th July 2021

Challenging but businesslike pay negotiations on behalf of ISS members working on the BT contact have delivered a proposed settlement for 2021 that would see nearly three quarters of employees receive a consolidated rise of 2.15%.

Crucially, ISS’s final offer, which emerged at the culmination of protracted talks, maintains the Real Living Wage as the absolute minimum hourly pay rate for housekeeping and security members which was outsourced by BT in April 2019.

As such, the deal on the table – which is being placed before members in a consultative postal ballot that will commence tomorrow (Wednesday July 14) – involves a baseline 20p per hour rise from £9.30 to £9.50.

The 2.15% pay offer also extends to a small number of employees whose hourly rate currently sits just above £9.50. Higher paid staff, meanwhile, are being offered 1.75%.

Assuming the deal is ratified by members in the forthcoming ballot, the fully consolidated increases – which flow through to overtime and other pay-related elements – will be backdated to June 1, and are expected to be in payment by the end of August.

Tracey Fussey

Commending the company’s final offer to members, the union’s ISS National Team chair Dave Tee points out that, in an area where the lower National Living Wage pay rate of £8.72 an hour is commonplace, the importance of the union’s success in ensuring Real Living Wage pay rates were carried over in the BTFS outsourcing agreement had once again been underlined.

“The National Team firmly believe that this is the best offer that can be achieved through negotiation this year, and therefore recommend that our members in ISS vote ‘Yes’ in the forthcoming ballot,” he stresses.

Newly elected CWU national officer for ISS, Tracey Fussey, concludes: “While we accept that the Covid pandemic has presented many challenges to ISS – just as it has to many other companies – it was hugely important to the CWU that, as agreed in the TUPE transfer, the Real Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation remains the minimum wage rate on the BT contract.

“This deal delivers that objective , but our aspirations don’t stop there and we hope that next year we can build on that.”

Ballot papers will be mailed to members’ home addresses tomorrow (Wednesday) – with the consultative poll closing on Tuesday August 3 (first post). The result will be announced later that day.