TV Licensing strike today and tomorrow
17th November 2011
For immediate release
TV Licensing strike today and tomorrow
Hundreds of TV Licensing workers employed by Capita will be on
strike for a third day tonight and tomorrow in a dispute over pay.
Many workers earn just above the minimum wage while Capita half year profits have increased by 8 per cent to over £1 million a day. Last year board members awarded themselves £1.65m in bonuses and the Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer, Finance Officer and other senior executives received pay increases of 17 per cent. CWU is asking for a pay rise in line with inflation - which runs at over 5 per cent - but Capita has refused to budge from an offer worth around 2.6 per cent.
Andy Furey, CWU assistant secretary, said:
"This is a dispute about fairness. We have a clear case of
double standards - one rule for senior executives who award
themselves massive pay rises and bonuses and another rule for staff
who are expected to suffer with pitifully low rises in pay.
"The truth is that working people are being made to line
the pockets of the rich and Capita is a prime example of that.
These are honest, hardworking people many of whom have never taken
strike action before but are struggling themselves and then seeing
their bosses take huge pay rises.
"Three days of strike action is unprecedented and we
strongly urge Capita to return to negotiations to resolve this
dispute before Christmas."
Alison Langford, Admin Assistant in Operations
Support, Darwen, said: "I earn £234 a week BEFORE tax and
national insurance. I've never taken strike action before this
in my life, but I need a living wage. I was earning this much 30
years ago when I worked in production." Alison has been
working for Capita for one year.
Jane Pascal, a part time admin worker in
Bristol who has worked for TV Licensing for 15 years said: "We
work really hard for Capita. We give a quality service whilst
ensuring all their targets are met so why do Capita insist on
treating us with such contempt and offering an inadequate pay rise
well below inflation whilst giving their Directors a huge pay rise
well above inflation? They can afford to give us a decent pay rise
seeing as they earn profits of £1,000,000 a day and I feel
they are just brushing us under the carpet like we don't
matter. Well we are not standing for it, we'll fight for this
as long as it takes. It's about time they started to
appreciate their hard working staff." Yearly salary of
£14,564.
Picket lines Friday 18th November:
Bristol: 7:30 - 10:30am 100 Temple Street, Bristol, BS98 1TL
Darwen: 7:30 - 10:30am India Mill, Bolton Road,
Darwen, BB3 1YX
Staff in Bristol and Darwen, and a small number in Glasgow, work
in call centre and support roles and will be on strike on Friday
18th November. Enforcement officers who work in the
field are on strike from 4pm today, Thursday 17th
November.
-ends-
For more information please contact:
Sian Jones, Press Officer,
tel: 020 8971 7267, mobile: 0779
3314249 e-mail: sbjones@cwu.org
Notes to editors:
- Capita staff rejected the original offer from Capita by 88 per cent in a consultative ballot.
- Staff have already staged two walkouts - on 17th and 31st October.
Financial information on Capita:
2011 half year report
- Turnover was up by 3% at £1.4bn with underlying profits up by 8% at £193m.
- The interim dividend per share was up 9%.
- £1.1bn worth of major contract wins and renewals was achieved in the first half of the year, more than double the value achieved in the first half of 2010.
- £194m was invested in acquisitions - this came from 'surplus cash' in the business.
- The interim report states 'Capita is now enjoying a healthy flow of new opportunities and the bid pipeline has been replenished to its previous record level of £4.7bn, providing us with a good platform for stronger progress in 2012.'
2010 annual report
- In 2010 profits increased by 12% and stood at £364.2 million - this is up by 31.3% from 2008.
- Shareholders reaped the benefits of this with a 19% increase in dividends in 2010. In total dividends of £121m were paid out to shareholders in 2010 and almost £600m has been paid out in the past five years.
- Total revenues were up by 2.1% in 2010 and the company had a turnover of £2.7bn - revenues are up by over 31% on 2008.
- In 2010 Capita won £795m worth of major contracts and renewals; in the first seven weeks of 2011 alone this strong performance continued with £244m worth of business.
- £1.65m was paid out in bonuses to the board in 2010 - an increase of 22.9% on 2009.
- Against this, the average total cost per employee fell by 0.5% in 2010.
- The annual report states that for TV licensing services, service levels have been met for 33 consecutive months and all of the key targets have been hit.
Individual directors' remuneration
- Directors' total remuneration of £3.4m in 2010 was up by 11.1% (from £3m the previous year). Three directors had increases of £5,000 to their basic pay announced for 2011 in the 2010 report.
- Paul Pindar (Chief Executive) received £901,360 in salary (£375,000), benefits (£1,360) and bonus (£525,000) up by £131,350 or 17% on the previous year (from £770,010). He also received 165,000 shares under Capita's LTIP programme.
- Gordon Hurst (Finance Director), Simon Pilling (then Chief Operating Officer) and Maggi Bell (Business Development Director) similarly received over £500,000 each and increases of 17% on the previous year.
From Sian Jones | Press Officer
E sbjones@cwu.org | T 020 8971 7267 | M 0779 3314249 | Twitter @CWUnews
