LTB 016/20 Capital TVL: Formal Pay Claim 1st January 2020

No. 016/2020

10th January 2020

 

Dear Colleagues

CAPITA TVL: FORMAL PAY CLAIM 1ST JANUARY 2020

Branches are advised, following Postal Executive endorsement earlier this week, we have now formally submitted the annual pay claim for our TV Licence members working for Capita. The pay date is 1st January 2020 and pay negotiations have already commenced, with the first meeting held on 18th December 2019 with Paul Johnston, Partnership Director, Alison Roberts, Chief Operating Officer and Kirsty Holden, HR Business Partner.

There is a serious and unusual backdrop to these negotiations following the announcement by Jon Lewis the CEO last September that Capita Group has committed to introducing the Real Living Wage of £9.30 per hour from 1st April this year (our claim is for an earlier introduction date of 1st January). Capita has confirmed that 55% are currently below this hourly pay rate and for many of our members earning £8.60 per hour, this would equate to a pay rise of slightly more than 8%.

With the move to the Real Living Wage, the primary objective of our claim relates to those members currently earning greater than £9.30 per hour. We have therefore submitted a claim for a 3% pay increase for these members. We have already emphasised to Capita that introducing the Real Living Wage shouldn’t be at the detriment of members currently in receipt of higher basic pay; hence the 3% claim.

Branches at the 2019 Annual Conference carried Motion 101 in respect of the Shorter Working Week and this conference policy is an integral part of our claim.

Key Features of the Pay Claim:

  • The introduction of the Real Living Wage hourly pay rate of £9.30 from 1st January 2020 rather than 1st April 2020
  • Capita TVL commits to automatically introducing further increases in the Real Living Wage on 1st January each year to take account of the Living Wage Foundation’s recommendation
  • 3% minimum pay increase for all members whose basic hourly pay rate is greater than the Real Living Wage
  • 3% minimum pay increase for those members who, on moving up to the Real Living Wage, would receive a pay rise of less than 3%
  • A one hour reduction in the 37.5 hour net working week
  • Improvements to the employers’ pension contribution rates
  • Duration of the pay agreement – 1 year

At the initial pay meeting, Capita indicated they would wish to move the pay date in the future to 1st April, with the next pay review therefore commencing from 1st April 2021. This proposal is to link TVL to the wider Capita Group’s financial year and budgeting processes. This would mean a 15 month pay agreement which is something we are not in principle averse to. However, it does mean negotiating an agreement that has the full value of 15 months rather than spreading a 12 month deal over 15 months.

A new report from November 2019 by the Centre for Progressive Policy entitled “The Good Life, The role of employers” has exposed Capita as needing to significantly improve pay, terms and conditions. This report contains a “Good Employer Index” consisting of the 25 largest UK employers ordered by rank. Capita is at the bottom of the table. Below is a link to the report:

https://www.progressive-policy.net/publications/the-good-life-the-role-of-employers

In response to the findings of the report, a Capita Group spokeswoman stated

“We don’t recognise the findings of this arbitrary report which fails to take into account the huge strides we have made to improve employee wellbeing as part of our transformation programme. We have more to do but are committed to further improving the environment for all our people”.

The language used by Capita in regard to committing to further improvements will be pursued in our pay negotiations. We will also be pressing Capita to make a formal pay offer in order to inject some urgency into the negotiations as we want to reach a settlement at the earliest opportunity. Therefore we have agreed to meet Capita again on 22nd January and 12th February to continue our pay negotiations. Further developments will be reported to members as appropriate.

Finally, below is a link to a CWU web article regarding our pay claim:

https://www.cwu.org/news/fair-pay-for-all-capita-tvl-workers-union-submits-2020-pay-claim/

Yours sincerely

Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary

20LTB016 Capita TVL – Formal Pay Claim 1st January 2020