Telefonica members overwhelmingly accept 1.1% pay deal

Telecoms & Financial Services, Telefonica UK

Friday 19th February 2021

Members in Telefonica have voted by more than four-to-one to accept a 1.1% across-the-board pay deal for all CWU-represented grades.

In a ballot that closed this morning (Friday), no fewer than 82.72% of those casting a vote supported an unequivocal union recommendation to back the company’s ‘final offer’ that was ultimately secured by CWU negotiators following difficult but businesslike negotiations.

Despite uncompromising efforts by the CWU throughout pay talks to highlight the extraordinary contribution made by the workforce throughout an exceptionally difficult year, the union’s Telefonica national team had concluded that equally unprecedented challenges posed to the business by the ongoing pandemic mean the offer on the table was the best that could be achieved by negotiation.

Sally Bridge

The union did ensure, however ,that in line with recent pay settlements, the lower than hoped for headline deal is  supplemented  by additional pay progression payments for those on  O2 contracts in technical specialist, business support and technical & engineering grades.

Based on 2020 end-of-year review ratings, these payments will provide an additional 0.5% for outstanding performers, 0.4% for high performers, 0.3% for good performers and 0.2% for ‘developing’ performers. Only those O2 contract employees who are deemed to be ‘underperforming’ will receive nothing on top of the 1.1%.

Thanking members for backing the CWU-brokered deal, the union’s national officer for Telefonica, Sally Bridge, said: “Of course we’d all have liked the headline deal to have been higher, but members have clearly concurred with the view of the national team that this was a fair settlement in the unprecedented times we are living through.”