NEWS.CATEGORY: Industrial

GWR: Management grades pay offer 2024

On Monday Your management company council representative (Tom Bennett) and myself met with the company to discuss the pay offer for managers.

During the meeting we sought clarity on whether there was scope to either pay a higher amount for the 2023 year or enhance the 2024 offer in order to address the pay differential that has been caused by the offer to the general grades for 2023.

The company advised that the mandate that they have been given from the Department for Transport (DfT) mandate only allowed them to negotiate on the 2024 pay year and that offer was 4.5% for 2024 and they had no scope to offer anymore.

We asked if like the General grades any Managers who have left the company or changed grade since the relevant anniversary dates (1st April 2024 for Managers on Wessex contracts and 1st July 2024 for all other Managers) would receive the pay rise and they advised that this will apply to anyone in post from the relevant anniversary date up until the 30th of September. So if people have left after 30th September they will not receive the backdated pay because that is what the mandate from the DfT allows for.

Whilst the formal meeting was around those covered by collective bargaining I asked if the historic collective agreement that applies for Driver Standards Manager would be honoured. For context this is from 2011 when TSSA previously had collective bargaining rights for all managers and successfully won a collective grievance to ensure that there would always be a pay differential between the then Competence Managers and a Leading Driver. (I had some weeks earlier provided the company with the relevant paperwork to prove this historic agreement because they had advised us that they didn’t have copies!). They advised us that they planned to honour this for the Driver Standards Managers and that the value of the differential has always increased in line with pay rises. To be clear the company have only said this verbally and not put this in writing to me because of those managers currently sitting outside of collective bargaining. Like any other group of managers in order for us to have the right to negotiate and improve on or widen any agreement like that we need at least 50% + 1 of the managers in a grouping of managers to join TSSA for us to win those rights as we did for the Train Service Delivery Department in 2021 and the Rosters and resources Department in 2022. However, if the company don’t honour that agreement, we would of course support any members in that situation.


We then subsequently received the formal offer in writing which includes the clarity on how pensions will be treated as a result of including the leavers in the offer as per the clarity that TSSA sought from the DfT Nationally. All of the Management reps met on Tuesday 8th October to review this and voted to recommend acceptance of the offer. So it is now down to members to vote on the offer by 12 noon on Friday 18th October. 


The full offer is set out as below:

“In accordance with our collective bargaining arrangements, I am writing to formally set out our pay offer.

 This 1 year pay offer covers all Management TSD & R&R grades as follows: -

• Year 1 (2024/25) a pay increase of 4.5%

This pay offer is based on the employee base salary and salary linked contractual allowances as at the respective 2024 pay anniversary dates.

This pay offer will be effective from the TSD & R&R grades’ pay anniversary date conditional upon receipt of formal acceptance of the offer.

Management grade employees from TSD & R&R grades who have left employment up to 30 September 2024, will be eligible for arrears up to their date of leaving (to include employee’s who have changed employer) and similarly new entrants will be eligible for arrears from the date their employment commenced. This leavers arrears payment is exceptional and is not intended to form a precedent for future pay deals.

For employees that are members of the RPS DB (Defined Benefits Scheme) and receive a backdated pay award following agreement of the 2024/25 pay awards, for pensions purposes:

1. Contributions will continue to be based on pensionable pay as at 1 April 2024.

2. Contributions will next be updated from July 2025 based on pensionable pay on 1 April 2025 (which will take into account pay awards preceding that date).

3. In the event the member leaves pensionable service, the calculation of their scheme benefits will be calculated as if the pay award had been made on the date it is backdated to, rather than the date it is awarded. Great Western Railway Milford House 1 Milford Street Swindon SN1 1HL GWR.com 0330 095 2000 2

4. Any Active RPS DB Member who is not employed by the Company on the date of the Pay Settlement, the calculation of their scheme benefits (if any) in the Operator’s Section of the RPS will be calculated as if the pay award had been made on the date it is backdated to, rather than the date it is awarded for the purposes of calculating the member’ benefits as at the date they left service with the Company.

5. Any back-pay lump sum awarded will not be pensionable (for contribution purposes) and will only be pensionable to the extent necessary to give effect to (3) above.

This is subject to the existing terms of any pensionable pay capping arrangements in place.

This offer is intended to reset relationships with TSSA and improve the industrial relations climate through a willingness to commit to jointly working together going forward to deliver a more operationally resilient railway.

 Negotiations on the 2025/26 pay review will take place in accordance with our collective bargaining arrangements.

These may include efficiency/productivity proposals to help support the future operational resilience of Britain's rail services.

On the basis the above is acceptable to your Executive Committee and your members this is a crucial first step towards working together to reset the industrial relations climate.”