Big ‘Yes’ to Santander pay deal

Santander January 25 2022

Members across Santander have overwhelmingly accepted a one- year pay offer which delivers an across the board increase of £1,000 (pro-rata for part-timers) for all apart from the lowest performing employees.

The CWU-brokered deal – which covers all S1-5 employees in Santander UK and Santander Technology (including colleagues who were in Santander Operations ‘G grades’ and are now mapped to the equivalent S grades) – also includes a one-off unconsolidated lump sum payment of £250. That payment applies equally to full and part-timers, in recognition of their outstanding contribution over the last 12 months of the pandemic.

In a consultative ballot that closed on Friday (January 21) almost nine in ten of those casting a vote backed the settlement, which crucially maintains a pay progression scheme previously negotiated by the union for S1 and S2 grade employees in Santander UK. Unique in the banking industry, the scheme means that those in scope for pay progression will receive the higher of either their pay progression payment or £1,000.

In a sector in which performance-related rises are the norm, the headline flat rate pay deal is not performance related – applying to everyone apart from those with a 2021 performance rating of ‘Not Achieved’.

The company’s ‘final offer’ – which was reached following intensive negotiations in which the interests of CWU members were represented by national officer for Santander, Sally Bridge, and T&FS Executive member Gordon Johnston – additionally includes:

A 2% increase to S1/G1 and S2/G2 pay range midpoints – meaning pay range maximums and minimums will be upwardly adjusted as the deal become effective on March 1
Pay-related allowances, such as overtime, being recalculated in line with any increase in salary
Minimum full-time entry salaries (S1:P1) increasing from £17,370 to £18,520 – meaning that the lowest entry salary for any new starters joining Santander will be £10.41 an hour
An increase of paid maternity leave from 20 to 23 weeks – with the same increase applying to Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave
An increase to Paternity Leave to extend the fully paid period from 4 to 5 weeks.

Thanking members for their 89% ratification of the deal, CWU national officer for Santander Sally stresses the settlement for 2022 had achieved many of the National Team’s key objectives in a difficult negotiating environment. These included securing a decent ‘cost of living’ rise for lower paid workers who are disproportionately affected by sharp increases in the price of life’s essentials, while simultaneously securing a guaranteed increase for senior managers in CWU-represented grades whose pay rises have, in recent years, been discretionary.

“Against a backdrop of extreme volatility in inflation we’ve managed to conclude a settlement from the Bank which provides a level of certainty for members in world where very little is ‘certain’ just at present,” she explains.

“Taken in conjunction with the CWU’s success in securing a firm commitment by the business to conduct a joint review of the S1 and S2 pay ranges during 2022, ahead of the 2023 pay negotiations – and some very positive improvements to the Bank’s already industry-leading Family Leave offering – the CWU National Team is in no doubt that this was the best deal that could have been be negotiated at the current time.

Full details of the deal are set out in Santander Members’ Bulletin No. 01/2022