Telefonica pay offer recommended to members

Telefonica UK February 4 2019

A whirlwind set of pay negotiations with Telefonica has produced an across-the-board and fully consolidated 2.75 per cent offer, which will be placed before members in a consultative ballot next week.

The CWU negotiating team – which thrashed out the deal with company negotiators in intense meetings over a 14 day period – is recommending acceptance of the deal, which also secures pay progression payments for Telefonica (rather than NewGRID) contract employees.

Those performance related payments, which apply to Technical Specialist, Business Support and Technical & Engineering grades, give ‘good performers’ an additional 1 per cent, ‘high performers’ an additional 1.25 per cent and those deemed ‘outstanding’ and additional 1.5 per cent. Developing performers will receive 0.25 per cent, meaning only those graded as ‘under performing’ will receive no pay progression payment at all on top of the 2.75 per cent ‘base-line’ increase.

Commending the offer to members, assistant secretary Sally Bridge said: “From the outset of talks the CWU was adamant that the settlement for 2019 had to take into consideration both the rising cost of living and the contribution our members have made to the company’s success over the last 12 months.

“The national team believes the company’s final offer meets both objectives – delivering a fair and reasonable settlement that is certainly the best that could be achieved by negotiation.

“We’re pleased that this year we’ve been able to secure an acceptable offer earlier than usual – meaning that, assuming members ratify the deal in the forthcoming ballot, it will come into effect, on time, on April 1.

“These are difficult times to negotiate pay – partly because of the current volatility in the markets associated with uncertainty over Brexit, but also because of challenges in the industry itself. The fact we’ve been able to secure an offer that stacks up favourably against other pay settlements at this point in time demonstrates that Telefonica has listened to what the CWU had to say about the importance of our members’ pay rates not falling behind.”

• An electronic ballot will commence on Monday February 11, closing on Wednesday February 20 – when the result will be announced.