News

Adam Hooker, printweek.com, 19 August 2010

Unite has said that a "large number" of its members will receive pay rises this year, following a survey of its chapels.

In 94 cases, which featured regional officers’ assistance, the average increase agreed was 2.25%, while some pay rises were as high as 7.3% or as low as 1%.

According to the union, the national average increase for 2010 was 2% across all industry, meaning its print members have beaten the average by one quarter of a percent.

Although these figures are just a snapshot of cases, the union said that, anecdotally, it believes cases that did not require the attendance of a regional officer and were dealt with internally would provide very similar results.

Following the failure of the annual national agreement negotiations between Unite and the BPIF in both of the past two years, individual chapels have been left to negotiate their own increases.

Last year, around 85% of members did not receive increases as print bosses pleaded poverty on the back of the recession.

According to Unite national officer Steve Sibbald, the lack of an increase last year was accepted because inflation was in decline so the standard of living was not affected.

But he said: "With the RPI at around 5% on average, there is no way employees should go a second year without a pay increase.

"We are in a far better situation than we were last year and people feel justified in receiving an increase. I wouldn’t say we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but perhaps we are seeing a glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

"It isn’t just to do with a pay increase though, although that is of course a huge part of it. It has a lot to do with sending message to employees, giving them a moral boost. We realise some companies can’t afford a lot, but if they can give what they can that is appreciated."

However, Sibbald added that the large difference between increases being given was "not necessarily a good thing" and called for the national agreement to return.

He said: "It destabilises the playing field. As much as possible, we want employers playing on a level playing field and the agreement helped that. The longer we go on without an agreement the more difficult it will be to get back to an even field."