Unite begins strike ballot for Bank of England staff in pay dispute
Staff at the Bank of England will from today start voting in an industrial action ballot as Unite, the union representing staff at the bank calls on their employer to give them a decent pay deal.
Unite has branded the bank: "arrogant and out of touch."
The dispute centres on the derisory pay settlement that the bank has imposed upon staff without agreement of the recognised union Unite. Staff are angry that they have been given a below inflation pay offer for the second year running. The result of this pay award is that some staff will get no pay rise in 2017 whatsoever.
Unite is calling on The Bank of England to reconsider their refusal to fairly negotiate the pay of their committed and loyal workforce in order to prevent this industrial action ballot.
Ballot papers will today arrive at the homes' of employees asking them whether they wish to take industrial action or action short of strike action. The first stage of the action involves staff working in the maintenance, reception and facilities departments. Staff in these departments can earn as little as £20,000 per year and the imposition of a one per cent pay award leaves them and their families facing financial hardship.
Unite regional officer Mercedes Sanchez said: "Staff at the Bank of England will today start voting for industrial action due to their employers outright refusal to negotiate a fair pay deal for its workforce. The bank's disgraceful snub of low paid staff stinks of arrogance and represents an organisation thoroughly out of touch with the reality of the pressure staff face meeting their costs of living.
"It is a source of shame that an iconic symbol of financial services in the UK is choosing to ride roughshod over the concerns of its dedicated and hardworking staff and impose this derisory pay deal.
"Unite is calling on The Bank of England to come back to the negotiation table to discuss a fair pay deal for the employees in order to avoid any industrial action. Unite is prepared to talk and to reach a fair settlement.
"The Bank of England should be setting the highest standards within the financial services industry, not treating its workforce with contempt and forcing them to take a real terms pay cut."
The dispute has been caused by the imposition of a one per cent increase in the pay 'pot' for the pay year, which commenced in March 2017. The amount that an individual will receive is then decided at the discretion of line managers, so that employees could receive less that one per cent and some will receive no rise at all.
In a consultative ballot in February 2017 Unite members voted by over 70 per cent to move to a formal industrial action ballot.
The ballot papers to members will be issued on the 1st June and the ballot will close on 21st June 2017.
