NEWS.CATEGORY: Industrial
TPE: 2025 Pay Talks Update
Having withdrawn the previous pay offers that were previously provided, we met with the company at Joint Negotiating Forum (JNF) this week to negotiate on a fresh proposal for the General Grades pay offer. They have re-framed the productivity items that they propose will assist us to reach the 3.4% threshold offer and proposed 4 items under the headings of “Payroll Items” and “Enabling productivity negotiations” as per the below extracted from the offer: “Payroll items 1. Support the insourcing of payroll services from GWR into TPT, subject to appropriate consultation. TPT will shortly present details of the changes to systems and processes which will enable us to move payroll services from GWR to in-house provision, located at Bridgewater House. The modernisation of payroll systems and associated changes affecting colleagues will be subject to consultation. This item would be a commitment to support the delivery of the project within the planned timescales and to facilitate the timely conclusion of consultation. 2. Digitised payroll documentation, principally 4-weekly payslips, weekly pay statements, P60s, P11Ds and P45s. As a consequence of systems modernisation as a part of payroll insourcing, we would move all pay documentation to a new electronic means of delivery. Paper documentation would cease and all items would be available for download via an electronic portal, similar to the current e-Pay system. Employees would not need a company device to access the system. 3. When the new payroll system is online, paying average holiday pay dynamically each period rather than once per year, in line with legislation. This item is explicitly linked to item 1 as it is a function of the upgraded payroll system we propose to implement as part of payroll insourcing. In the UK, workers are entitled to a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave that they take. Most workers are therefore legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year, which can include bank holidays. Holiday pay is usually calculated based on a worker's "normal" rate of pay, which may include regular overtime. For workers with variable hours or pay, holiday pay can be calculated based on an average of the previous 52 weeks worked. Currently the agreement reached at JNF in April 2016 states that we will make the required average holiday pay payment once per year, each December. The calculation for this payment is time consuming as it is a manual process, due to the limited capability of our current payroll system. Our proposal takes advantage of our future payroll system capabilities to calculate this payment at the time the holiday is taken to ensure that we are compliant with legislation and remove the need for manual calculations. As part of this proposal, we do not intend to change the agreed variable elements of pay or any other elements contained with the existing holiday pay calculations agreement. The change relates to the reference period over when the difference between gross and basic pay amount shave been paid i.e. a fixed 52 weeks (Jan to Dec each year). The new reference period will be the previous 52 valid weeks prior to each instance of leave taken rather than using the fixed year period. We also will only count "valid weeks" i.e. weeks in which some work was done by the employee, currently all weeks in the fixed reference period are counted regardless of whether the employee worked that week or not. The new payroll system also gives us the ability to look back hours worked up to 104 weeks to try and find the 52 valid weeks to support the calculation. Due to how the current data will be transferred into the new payroll system, it will take time for this new reference period to be calculated. We do not believe any colleague will suffer any detriment due to this change. It is our belief that colleagues will benefit from having greater transparency around how this payment is calculated and will receive this payment on a more regular basis instead of waiting until December each year. Proposals 1-3 would not affect employees’ existing payment frequency (i.e. weekly pay for those currently paid at this frequency). Enabling productivity negotiations 4. A joint commitment to engage in meaningful productivity negotiations with TPT. We propose, for each TU in scope of this proposal, to split off from single table bargaining after these pay negotiations, to commence negotiations and explore potential opportunities for productivity or efficiency relating to terms and conditions and working practices or agreements, any settlement being separate to the headline 3.4% in this proposal. Precise timescales and meeting frequency would be agreed with each TU. It is proposed that these negotiations take place at a mutually agreeable point in time following the acceptance of the proposed pay award. Next Steps This is a proposal in principle and is subject to affirmation through TPT’s internal governance. The next pay anniversary date would be 1st April 2026.” We expect to receive similar offers for the Management Grades covered by Collective Bargaining in the near future with the offer of holding meetings of the various role specific company councils but at the point of publishing these have not yet been received. TSSA intend on engaging with our Representatives in the first instance about these offers but ultimately the intention would be seeking members feedback on the proposals once we have received all the offers, and any meetings have taken place. For those outside of collective bargaining I have asked the question about whether the pay rise will reflect 3.4% but as yet have not had a satisfactory answer. TSSA wants to ensure that all Rail workers have the right to be Collectively Bargained and have a voice in any negotiations of this nature. The best way to achieve this is by joining TSSA at www.tssa.org.uk/join and getting the majority of your job role/department/function in TSSA membership to demonstrate the desire for Collective Bargaining. If you are interested in achieving this within TPE/TPT then please contact Alan Valentine on valentinea@tssa.org.uk or one of the existing Management graded Representatives. |