Joint chapel calls for more concessions as Macmillan offers 1%The NUJ/Unite chapel at Macmillan Education in Cowley is calling for negotiations over the discretionary payments. The NUJ/Unite chapel at Macmillan Education in Cowley is calling for negotiations over the discretionary payments following a belated offer of 1% pay rise for 2009-2010. They are also calling for movement on the outstanding issues of transparent salary structure, working hours and maternity leave.
The 1% offer follows a complete pay freeze that was imposed at the end of last year without reference to either the NUJ or Unite, which are recognised at four Macmillan sites for the purposes of bargaining over pay and conditions. It was made at a meeting betwen union officials and reps from all four sites and Annette Thomas, Macmillan CEO, and Tania Hummel, group personnel director, and was presented as ‘non-negotiable’. It is substantially lower than the 5% submitted by the chapel in their pay claim last September. Furthermore, the company is proposing that the rise take effect in April – three months later than usual.
The joint chapel at the Cowley site, together with the chapels at the other three sites, is now calling on the company to negotiate over payments made from a separate pot of money, which is set aside for distribution within departments. “It has variously been described as ‘a discretionary payment’ or ‘to even out anomalies’, but we never know where it goes or why,” says chapel committee member Adele Moss. “The chapel also wants to see movement on the whole issue of transparent pay scales, which has been a major source of tension here for far too long. If the company expects us to take this sort of hit on our pay, we think it is only fair that we get something in return.”
AW 2009-04-02
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