Going for growth in Santander Technology

Telecoms & Financial Services, Santander July 17 2018

A major recruitment drive has kicked off in Santander Technology following the bank’s agreement to award the CWU exclusive collective bargaining rights across the whole of its IT subsidiary.

The move, which was ratified in June after the successful conclusion of tripartite talks between Santander, the CWU and Advance (formerly the Abbey National Staff Association) – gives the CWU the opportunity to recruit up to 1,000 formerly unrepresented workers into the union.

Previously the CWU only had recognition in about 20 per cent of Santander Technology, centred on the former Produban and Isban operations at the ex- Alliance & Leicester sites in Carlton Park and Bootle.

The new expanded bargaining unit, however, includes Santander Technology’s main site at Shenley Wood in Milton Keynes and two nearby satellite offices, also in Milton Keynes – and in recent months the CWU has successfully built up a significant membership, almost from scratch.

That push entered a new phase on this Tuesday, however, when the CWU conducted a major recruitment session at Shenley Wood.

Assistant secretary John East said: “Around 70 per cent of Santander Technology’s entire workforce is based in Milton Keynes, and now we have access to them we’re getting an enthusiastic response and a steady flow of new joiners.

“We’ve already reached the stage where we have nearly as many members in Shenley Wood as we do in Carlton Park, which is the bigger of our two traditional sites.

“Encouragingly, we’ve also received an expression of interest from someone who’s keen to become a rep. Once that person has been trained up that will make a major difference because visibility of the advantages of a permanent on-site CWU presence is bound to accelerate recruitment.”

Already workers in the bulk of Santander Technology which previously fell outside the CWU’s recognised bargaining unit have benefitted significantly from the CWU’s involvement – because as part of the recognition talks the CWU managed to extend company-wide sick pay and redundancy terms to staff who’d previously only qualified for statutory terms in both areas.

The next aim, however, will be harmonising terms and conditions across the company – as although the CWU had negotiated a common grading system in Isban prior to that subsidiary being subsumed into Santander Technology, the union’s long-term membership in Produban are still on A&L terms.

The first big change that members in the formerly non-recognised part of Santander Technology will see, however, will be the fact that the CWU will be negotiating their 2019 pay rise on their behalf.

“With the exception of the traditional CWU strongholds in Carlton Park and Bootle, former Isban and Produban employees elsewhere have never had negotiated pay rises previously – and I’m confident that those employees will see for themselves one of the major advantages of being in a recognised trade union once pay talks get underway,” concludes John