The Workers Union is standing up for workers by asking firms to pay cost of living payments.
The announcement came as aircraft engineering group Rolls Royce joined Lloyds Bank in handing staff additional cash to cope with rising prices.
Thousands of staff were told on Monday that they would receive a lump sum of £2,000 in cash, with workers on the shop floor set to benefit from a 4 percent pay rise backdated to March this year. The company also plans to pay junior managers £2k. It is thought that the total cost to Roll-Royce will be in the region of £40 million.
The pay offer means that staff working in hard-pressed regions such as the East Midlands (Derby) and the South West (Bristol) will receive a boost at a time when spiking food and fuel costs far outstrip stagnant wages.
Rolls-Royce’s decision is the latest in a series of pay offers from leading companies. As well as Lloyd’s Bank, supermarket giants Morrisons have pledged to increase staff pay, with competitors such as Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco following suit.
The Workers Union Says…
Workers are a company’s most important asset. They cannot be reduced to numbers on a balance sheet or dismissed as herds of shuffling automatons able to suck up whatever’s handed to them without complaint. Too often company chiefs expect cold conformity while they warm their hands on the profits of staff labour, so it must be considered progress that some top execs understand that people need help and they need it now.
The Workers Union believes in the value of work and the value of working people. We believe that British workers deliver excellence that is the envy of the rest of the world. That is why we are asking company chiefs to back their staff at this difficult time.
Sensible, empathic gestures that offer hope and increase morale live long in the collective memory. Unreasonable demands and pitiless indifference generate unrest and crashing productivity. In a world that is ever more in flux, bosses should heed the message coded in the spirit of the age: change is inevitable, but loyalty endures.
