Craigforth Branch Meeting – 17/1/13

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

An election for General Secretary of Unite is being held in accordance with instructions issued by the Executive Council under Rule 15, Clause 3, and must be strictly adhered to. Accordingly, each branch is entitled to nominate a candidate for this office.

Prospective candidates must fulfil the eligibility requirements of Rule 16, clause 12 i.e. have at least 5 years continuous membership of the union and have received at least 50 nominations subject to the total including nominations from more than one region.

Under the ballot rules our branch is required to hold a meeting during the nomination period (1st January to 15th February 2013) in order to determine our nomination for the position of General Secretary.

All Unite members based in Craigforth are invited to attend.

This meeting will take place on 17th January at 10am in the Staff Canteen.

Your Branch Office Bearers
Alan Shields
Harry Forsyth
Susan Bailey
Frank Conway

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UKIO Pay Ballot – Now Open

Monday, January 7th, 2013

The 2013 UKIO Pay Ballot opened today and closes at midday on 18th January 2013.

The offer is:-

• 3% merit pot for Grades 1 – 3
• Minimum FTE Income of £15,600 (equivalent of London Living Wage)
• Maternity/Adoption Pay to be reviewed in Q1 2013
• Review of those employees beneath 80% of market by end of Q2
• Agreement to review the possibility to process the tax free element (£208) of the homeworkers allowance through payroll
• Season Ticket Loan facility to be extended to include annual car parking

The union is recommending members accept the offer

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UKIO Pay Claim

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

UKIO Pay Claim

Following a series of meetings with members in London, Reading and Craigforth Unite submitted the UKIO 2013 pay claim on Friday 16th November. The claim is based on what you, our members, told us you wanted to see in the claim. This is obviously the Unite starting position. Negotiations with the business begin this week and are likely to continue through December. We hope to get to a position which will enable us to come back to members with a recommendation to accept an offer from the Company in a pay ballot.

The key elements of the claim are:-

• Across the board RPI + 1% increase (4.2%) for all employees

• Additional 1% merit pot for High Performers

• Minimum FTE salary to equal the 2012 Minimum Income Standard £16,400

The main rationale for the claim is that many of our members over the past couple of years have seen a reduction in their purchasing power as pay settlements have been below the rate of RPI. This is contrast to the Company’s performance which has seen profits and its share dividend increase at a far higher percentage rate than wages.

In 2010, RPI was 4.6%, the merit pot was 2.75%. In 2011, RPI was 5.2%, the merit pot was 3%. An average earner is therefore approximately 3.97% worse off in real terms now than they were in 2010.

Compare these increases to the increase in profits made by the UK. In 2010 the UK IFRS profits increased by 12% and in 2011 they increased by a further 8%.

These positive UK results are achieved by the collective efforts of the whole workforce not just the 35% who are rated high performers. We believe the time has come to recognise everyone’s contribution by giving an across the board increase that allows employees to maintain their standard of living.

Equal Pay Audit & Allowance Review

UKIO have conducted a thorough Equal Pay audit and a review of allowances paid to employees. UKIO is one of the very few Finance Sector companies to conduct an audit and it showed there were no significant issues in relation to Equal Pay. The results of the audit and allowance review have been shared with Unite and we are currently reviewing them and discussions with the Company continue.

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PGDS Pay Claim

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

PGDS Pay Claim Submitted

Following a series of meetings in London, Reading and Craigforth Unite submitted the PGDS 2013 pay claim on Friday 16th November. Negotiations with the business will begin in December and are likely to continue into the New Year.

The key elements of the claim are:-

• Across the board increase of RPI ( 3.2%) for all employees

• An additional merit pot of 1.8% for high performers and to address pay anomalies.

• Pru Choice Flex fund for all employees increased to 5%

• Increase overtime rates to “standard PGDS rates”.

• 35 hour working week for all

The rationale for the claim is that many of our members over the past couple of years have seen a reduction in their purchasing power as they have received pay settlements below the rate of RPI. As PGDS have had another solid year thanks to the collective effort of all its employees, not just the few high performers, we believe they should be rewarded with a standard of living increase, with an additional pot for the high performers.

To make Pru Choice a genuinely attractive benefit, we believe PGDS should increase the Pru Choice flex fund to 5%. This will provide employees the ability to maintain their contractual elements and have money to purchase other benefits to suit them and their families. It will also bring PGDS in line with UKIO.

As part of our continuing campaign to harmonise overtime we believe the next logical step is to increase the two rates that are still below the “standard PGDS rate”. Specifically, the 1.33 weekday overtime rate should be increased to 1.50. Also the 1.50 rate for after 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays should be increased to 2.00.

Unite Policy is for all employees to have a FTE working week of 35 hours. A number of employees have contracts for a longer week and we propose PGDS harmonise all employees to 35 hour week.

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Outlook – September 2012: Share options, other updates

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

Share Options

As members will be aware we asked those Business Areas where we have recognition (UKIO, PGDS & CP) to raise our anger, with Group, at the rule that was retrospectively applied which prevents employees who cancelled a Share Option in 2008 to participate in the 2012 Option.

However, Group wouldn’t change the rule for the 2012 option but will review in time for the 2013 option.

We are obviously disappointed but discussions are still ongoing.

Other Updates

Unite in Capita – Colleagues in IT Capita have won an incredible victory in stopping their jobs being offshored. After only 10 hours of industrial action short of strikes, Capita agreed to shelve their plans.

Pay Claim – During October we will be holding meetings in all sites to find out what you want to see in next year’s pay claim.

We are also still in discussions with UKIO HR regarding elements of last years claim including the Benefit review and Equal Pay audit.

Environmental Awareness

To increase environmental awareness in the workplace Corporate Property’s environment team will regularly contribute to Unite’s Outlook newsletter. We are planning to inform employees about the company’s key environmental initiatives and provide practical tips on how employees can reduce their energy consumption, increase waste and paper recycling, reduce travel associated carbon emissions and reduce water consumption and taking other steps that make a difference for the planet.

Today almost half of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the use of buildings1 (27 per cent from homes and a further 17 per cent from nondomestic buildings). Without concerted action and without real change in the ways in which we live and work, we won’t achieve our goals.

If you would like to contact the Environment Team with any questions or ideas or, please email: environment@prudential.co.uk.

1 http://www.zerocarbonhub.org/resourcefiles/1101177.pdf

Annuities in Reading

We are currently engaged in two sets of consultations involving changes to Bulk Annuities and Individual Annuities – Servicing.

In Bulks the change involves a loss of approx 11 FTE with a number of people being placed at risk of redundancy and in Servicing some work is moving to Mumbai with 3 people being placed at risk.

We are working closely with the business to ensure compulsory redundancies are kept to an absolute minimum.

We are also holding regular meetings with members in these areas to keep them updated on what we are doing.

Tags: Environmental awareness, Outlook, Share options
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