July 18th, 2018

TUPE and Diligenta

On Friday we visited the Diligenta office in Peterborough for our consultation meeting. We received a tour of the office and also got the opportunity to question some individuals who have undergone a TUPE and those that joined Diligenta separately. We took some real positives from those individuals and the key for us is that they all felt they were rewarded fairly for what they do.

Following on from our previous email, the situation as it stands is:

What do we now know:

Salary Increases – The Diligenta approach is to award an across the board increase for all employees following negotiation with Unite. It has been confirmed that there is also a pot to award increases throughout the year to reward performance and address anomalies. The bonus (where payable) will also be used to reward individual performance.

Prudential Bonus 2018 – we have agreed that the half year rating should apply. However, where an individual has been rated lower than meeting a review of these individuals performance will be undertaken prior to 1 October to ensure that if that individual ‘would’ be meeting/meeting by year end then the rating may be changed accordingly. Following conversations regarding this element – we are comfortable with this approach.

Prudential Staff Discounts – these will cease on transfer to Diligenta on 1 October 2018. However, following our request, the opportunity to open an M&G ISA with a waiver on the initial charge will continue for a further 6 months to 31 March 2019 – you can use the following link for more information and it is the easiest way for you to  open one prior to transfer with only £1: (http://intranet.pru.local/homepage_content/prudential_uk_news/2018_quarter_one/february/mandg_isa_allowance/?view=Standard&gsasro=3&gsaq=M%26G%20Isa)  

Carers Policy – we are very disappointed that Diligenta don’t currently have this in place however their Compassionate & Dependants Leave policies can be used for this purpose.  They have no plans at this time to introduce one, but post transfer, Unite reps will make this an agenda item to discuss further with Diligenta.

Final Salary (DB) Scheme – Diligenta initially offered a 12% non-contributory DC scheme for the transferring DB members. We were encouraged by the non-contributory element however the proposed employer contribution was not acceptable. We submitted counter proposals to both Diligenta and Prudential as follows:

Unite Counter Proposal to Diligenta

These individuals are losing approximately 25% of their current total reward with no certainty that a DC fund will perform anywhere near as well as their DB pension.  In view of the significant financial detriment , long service and loyalty to those individuals in the DB scheme transferring to Diligenta, we would like to propose the following:

24% non-contributory DC scheme

This population will be key in ensuring a smooth transition following the transfer to Diligenta as their skills and knowledge need to be retained and also, you will have a reasonably happy workforce. This would mitigate the risk of these individuals leaving as the ‘golden handcuffs’ have been removed.

Unite Counter Proposal to Prudential

•  Additional years DB contributions added to their DB pension (based on their final Prudential salary) to offset the loss of the scheme to paid by Prudential, plus the Diligenta DC non-contributory scheme.
• Removal of the reduction in accrued benefits if DB pension is taken early e.g. 55.

 
Revised Diligenta Proposal (4^th July 2018)

1 October 2018 – 30 September 2020      14% Employer Contribution

1 October 2020 onwards                             12% Employer Contribution plus 1% if you make a contribution of 3% or more = 13% Employer Contribution & 3% Employee Contribution

 

Further Revised Prudential/Diligenta proposal for DB (Prudential & Scot Am) members (13^th July 2018):

Date	Employer Contribution	Matching Contribution	Maximum Employer Contribution
1 October 2018 – 30 September 2019	16%	None	16%
1 October 2019 – 30 September 2020	15%	None	15%
1 October 2020 onwards	12%	1% if Employee makes AVC of 3%+	13%

It is important to note that this is being fully funded by Prudential whereas the previous proposal from Diligenta was only 50% funded by Prudential. We do know that our proposal to add extra years into the DB (Prudential & Scot Am) scheme and removing the early retirement reduction was taken seriously.

We will discuss the revised offer from Prudential and Diligenta in our members meeting and this may form part of a separate communication.

Sharesave – all in scope individuals will receive a payment of £250 (less tax & NI) on the anniversary of their move to Diligenta – 1 October 2019. This is in respect of removing the opportunity to take part in future sharesaves.

Long Service Awards – We are really pleased that at our request, Prudential has confirmed that those individuals who have achieved 35 years’ service but have yet to reach 40 years with Prudential will receive the Diligenta long service award of £350 (vouchers) on the 1^st anniversary of their move to Diligenta – 1 October 2019.

 

Next Steps

There is a members meeting TODAY at 3.30pm in The Avenue and our Unite Regional Officer, Ian Methven will be in attendance. For those not able to attend, we can also be collate your feedback on the revised DB (Prudential & Scot Am) proposal by email to Unite@prudential.co.uk.

For those in the retained part of CS&I or Wealth, we will also be available to listen to any concerns or issues you wish to raise regarding the processes you are going through.

If you are unable to attend the members meetings, are not based in Reading or have any questions then please contact Unite@prudential.co.uk.

Thanks

Claire Williams
Ellen Looby
Jan Ciepkiewicz

Posted in Diligenta & TCS TUPE, Pru Section news | Comments Off on Consultation Update – W/C 16 July

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