Prudential Announcements – 12th June 2018

Friday, June 22nd, 2018

You will by now have heard the Company’s announcement regarding the extension of the strategic partnership with Diligenta.  We understand the drivers behind the need for business transformation and the need to deliver this at pace.

CS&I

Unite was informed of this announcement at the beginning of May and we have had some meaningful and positive discussions regarding the transfer of roles to Diligenta. We are pleased that there are no plans in the short term for any redundancies and that the Prudential redundancy terms will transfer with the roles.

The communications made on 12th June refer to approximately 403 Prudential roles being transferred to Diligenta and they all sit within CS&I, Risk and Finance in Reading and Craigforth. Mumbai roles will transfer to TCS as Diligenta are wholly UK based.

Some of those remaining at M&G Prudential in the CS&I function have been put at risk of redundancy but that there are a number of new roles in the new structure.

Wealth Solutions

We have also been involved with the consultations regarding the restructure of Wealth Solutions and the realignment into job families – we understand this is a period of uncertainty for you but although a large number of people will be placed at risk of redundancy, there will be more vacancies in the new target operating model than in the at risk pool, which we are pleased with.

Training and support will be provided for those that secure roles in the new structure and there are no plans to move jobs from Reading to Edinburgh.

General

We have spoken to a lot of individuals over the last few days in Reading, Craigforth and London to gain an understanding of the issues/concerns they have over the transformation.  These have been invaluable and will provide the basis of our approach to the consultations that start on 19^th June.

As part of the consultation process we have been invited to visit a Diligenta site and will update you on our impression of the operation once that has happened.

We will keep you all updated regularly on our consultations with the business and what Unite is doing to support our members that are being transferred, individuals that remain within M&G Prudential and those in Wealth Solutions during this time of unprecedented change.

If you have any questions on the announcement please email Unite@prudential.co.uk or speak to your local rep.

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Consultative Ballot for strike action in PGDS

Wednesday, April 4th, 2018

Unite members in PGDS are taking part in a consultative ballot in relation to the proposed TUPE to TCS.

TCS have advised that they plan to offshore approximately 100 jobs within 5/6 months of the TUPE which takes effect from 1st May.  They have also advised that they plan to de-recognise Unite from 1st May.

Unite believe the current plans puts the service to Prudential customers at risk and believe they are reckless and unnecessary and have rejected both these measures.  Counter proposals to keep the roles onshore and retain the current collective agreements have been submitted however TCS have been unwilling to change their original proposals.

Therefore, Unite have opened a consultative ballot to gauge support for industrial action, up to and including strike action, to defend roles and union recognition.

Early indications show massive support for action on both issues and TCS and Prudential have been warned that industrial action will be inevitable unless they change their position.

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SRS 2018 Pay Ballot Open

Wednesday, January 17th, 2018

The 2018 SRS pay ballot opened today following the end of negotiations. The Company’s final offer which is now be voted on by Prudential Section members is as follows:-

• Pay pot of 3%
• Minimum FTE Income for London based employees to be  £18,635 (equivalent to the London Living Wage)
• Minimum FTE Income for Non-London based employees to be £17,000 (equivalent to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Minimum Income Standard)

This followed the Unite claim which asked for an across the board increase equivalent to RPI and for the Minimum Full Time Equivalent Income to be set at the rate of the London Living Wage.

Unite’s formal response to the company stated that “we welcome the ongoing commitment to the Minimum Income levels.

However, we are extremely disappointed that the SRS Executive Team and Group Remuneration Committee see 3% as a cap/ceiling on pay deals. We believe this is a change in stance from previous years and not one that is welcome. We strongly believe that when looking at a pay offer, all options should be looked at. As detailed in our claim, the cost of living is increasing above 3% and interest rates are also increasing.  Your employees and our members clearly expressed their view that in this economic climate and with the Company continuing to make significant profits that they wanted a pay deal that reflected this.

For the Senior Management to simply ignore the extensive evidence presented in our claim and only debate a pot below 3% is astonishing; it shows how out of touch they are with the people they supposedly manage. We appreciate that our claim helped move them to a 3% deal, but for them not even to consider anything above that figure is a slap in the face for all employees who help the Company achieve the success that it enjoys. John Foley stated in November 2017 “We want M&G Prudential to become the best-loved and most successful savings and investments business. We want customers to love dealing with us and colleagues to love working here”. Our members have been quite clear that to achieve the colleague goal set by John, the Company should start with basic pay.

The Exec repeatedly state that this Company and its success is nothing without its people, however, when it comes to financial recompense for employees, Senior Management does not follow through by providing those employees with increases that as a minimum, allow for a standard of living equivalent to the previous year. As a result, your employees, our members, are getting poorer in real terms each year while the Exec continue to get richer.

We are also disappointed that again there was no consideration to an across the board the element in the offer. When you look at the actual distribution last year the average increase for those who were rated meeting/meeting was 2.70%.  We, therefore, believe it would have been possible for you set a minimum increase of 3% for those employees in that box.  As we discussed at our first meeting, other Finance Sector organisations are now moving towards this and we would have hoped that a minimum increase across the board would have been considered, but again this hasn’t even been debated.  Again, we find this incredibly hypocritical and arrogant of the remuneration committee, particularly as many of them enjoy the privilege of across the board increases to their own basic pay.”

The Company made clear that this was the final offer so we have now opened the pay ballot and our members will vote on whether to accept or reject the offer.

The ballot closes at midday on Wednesday 31st January 2018.

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M&G Prudential announce partnership with TCS

Tuesday, January 16th, 2018

Today M&G Prudential announced that they were entering into a new strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

We understand the drivers behind the need for business transformation however we are deeply disappointed with a number of the proposals contained within this partnership and have advised the M&G Prudential Senior Leadership team accordingly.

Unite was informed of this announcement last week but no consultation on the proposals have yet taken place. We are continuing to meet with Senior Management to talk about the new partnership agreement and have asked for more information to be shared with us so meaningful consultation can now take place on the future of those roles being outsourced.

In the internal communications to all M&G Prudential staff this morning it refers to “180 Prudential roles being transferred to TCS”. These roles all sit within PGDS. Unite understands that within 6 months of the transfer to TCS 120 of those roles will be offshored and existing role holders will be made redundant.

Unite believe this to be unacceptable and are concerned that offshoring these roles and losing the existing knowledge and experience of the current employees will put at risk the service M&G Prudential provides to its customers.

Over the next week Unite will be meeting members directly impacted by the announcement to better understand what we can do to support them through this process.

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UKIO Members Vote to Accept Pay Offer

Monday, January 30th, 2017

The Ballot for the UKIO 2017 Pay Review has now closed and the members have voted to accept the offer.

The full result was:-

Accept the offer    90%
Reject the offer     10%

Turnout     45%

The Company have been made aware of the result and any pay increases will be effective from 1st April.

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