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Pay Talks Begin at Virgin Media
1st February 2010
Negotiations with Virgin Media around the 2010 pay review are now entering their third week - and after last year's effective pay freeze the CWU is determined to achieve a meaningful increase in 2010.
While the pay talks, which began last Monday, only directly cover the recognised Network technicians and ex-Telewest service technicians, the union has already insisted that any rise should also apply to the rest of the service technicians as well.
"We don't want to see one set of members disadvantaged by just being in the wrong part of the company at the wrong time," explains assistant secretary Grace Mitchell.
"The company is at pains to point out that they still have a difficult financial background against which they operate - but for our part the CWU has argued that our members at the front line of the company deserve an increase in pay in real terms.
"We've also pointed out that changes in the pension scheme which come into force this year will leave many of our members worse off, if they wish to maintain the same level of contributions to the new scheme."
Grace stresses that whatever the outcome of negotiations, the union will be seeking the views of members in a consultative ballot.
She concludes: "Virgin Media's pay systems are notoriously complex, and as such we're concentrating our efforts on ensuring that people get a straightforward increase to their base pay this year."
