TfW Rail Limited 2022 management and clerical pay referendum

Dear member 

We are writing to you to report on the progress of our pay negotiations and to seek your feedback. Your reps have done an excellent job of representing your interests and have endeavoured to secure the best deal they can however we have now reached the end of the process. We present the offer to you below and want to acknowledge that during the process of the negotiations the offer has evolved over time. We have been in regular discussions and have come to you when our team agreed that there was a fully formed offer to present.

We were hopeful that we could reach a position where we could put an offer to you that the reps endorsed but, on this occasion, they are recommending that you reject this offer. It won’t have escaped your attention that your DfT controlled TOC colleagues have shown their employers what they think about the way that they are being treated over their livelihoods and job security by taking industrial action and your reps say that it is time for you to do the same.

You get to have your say now by completing our pay survey. By giving us a strong mandate, you are standing up for your rights. This will show the company that you have had enough, and this will put pressure on them to improve this year’s pay offer. 

The core pay offer applicable to all grades is set out below and while the productivity elements differ by grade, we fought hard for all of our members to receive an equivalent percentage pay increase. While we would have been surprised a few years ago that we would be discussing a pay offer of 6.5% this falls some way below the referenced RPI figure of 11.7%!

1. This is a 9-month deal, with a commitment to move the pay anniversary date for 2023 to the 1 April 

2. A collective pay offer of 4.5% across all grades (with a minimum increase of £1,500 per full-time equivalent) 

3. A continued commitment to no compulsory redundancies

4. An increase in Maternity leave from 12 weeks full pay to 26 weeks full pay

5. An increase in Paternity leave from 1-week full pay to 2 weeks full pay

 1. “Management & Clerical: The pay offer of 4.5% will increase to 6.5% on condition of delivery of the following productivity element. 

To reflect the requirement of on-call within defined management grades, 2% will be paid to honour this commitment.

2. If you are not required to be on-call, you will be required to work 2 customer support events/activities to provide additional customer support duties. This will commence in January 2023. The 2% payment will replace the current pay provision for these events. Events worked over and above this will be paid at the standard event payment rate.

3. As part of this offer, a full review of on-call will be undertaken to offer opportunities for people who do not currently have on-call commitments plus a commitment to work together to define the criteria of item ii above which will define medical capability, competency, and other alternative duties.”

 It has been particularly challenging to secure the additional 2% productivity gains for the management and clerical grades as the associated terms and conditions have altered a lot over the years and been subject to other negotiations. During the negotiations we raised a number of items which we wanted to include and that we know members have wanted to resolve over many years. The company however made their position clear that they were only willing to discuss items which would generate a financial benefit to them. You have been telling us for some time that you are frustrated with the way that special events and on call are managed and we confirmed that while we are happy to discuss these, we could not accept a situation whereby we ask our members to commit to working even more hours when your workloads are already stretched to breaking point. The company has also been unwilling to share with us any meaningful data about current and required resources levels.

Have your say now by clicking on this link and completing the survey by 16 September 2022 by clicking here.

We currently have several rep vacancies so please get in touch if you would like to get more involved in your union.