Members should ignore those, like Accord, who are arguing that staff should take into account TSB’s ‘ability to pay’ when considering its pay offer of just 2%. That argument would be more persuasive if TSB had awarded staff cost of living increases in the good years. It never did.

In 2017 TSB made a £162,7 million profit but last year nearly 9 out of 10 staff received salary increases of just 2%, when inflation was running at 4.1%. In real terms, the pay of all those members of staff fell significantly.

And this year, pay relative to the cost of living is falling again. Staff are being offered an increase of just 2%, when inflation is running at 3.2%. That means all staff in TSB will be worse off by 1.2%. That’s on top of what they lost last year. It seems that pay stagnation is built into TSB’s reward system and that’s set to continue for another 12 months as a result of the HR approved unions not being prepared to say enough is enough, and stand up for the interests of their members.

Accord says TSB’s pay award “has a simplicity” about it. Of course it does but that’s because it’s simply unacceptable and everyone can see that. One of the TSB approved staff unions says: “we’re a union that asks members what they think, not one that tells them what to think.” That’s a cop out. Given that members fund the union they are entitled to know what their union thinks of TSB’s pay offer. If a union is not prepared to say what it thinks, then that’s because either it secretly agrees with the pay offer or it’s so financially dependent on the support its get from TSB that it’s scared of upsetting its financial master.

Worst Pay Deal In The Finance Sector

Santander had a relatively bad year but their staff are getting a significantly bigger pay pot. Staff are also getting an extra day’s leave to be taken in 2019 to thank them for all their hard work during a difficult period.

The Spanish bank has also introduced a new approach to pay progression, which will see staff in the lowest graded jobs reaching the mid-point (100% point) of their salary scales in 12 months rather than 3 years. In TSB it’s more likely to be 10+ years for staff to get paid the rate for the job given recent pay increases.

In Lloyds Banking Group staff will get pay increases of up to 5.5%, depending on rating and position in the salary scale.

IT Meltdown….Keeps On Giving

Once again TSB staff are being penalised because of the IT meltdown that was created in Gresham Street, through a lack of oversight, and delivered in Barcelona through a lack of competence. It will be interesting to see what salary increase Sabadell staff in Spain will get this year. We bet it’s a lot more than 2%.

It was also confirmed in the recent results announcement that Mr Pester trousered £437,720 in 2018 and will trouser a further £801,030 in severance payments. In addition to both of those payments, Mr Pester also received a £400,000 bonus. What’s ironic in all of this is that Mr Pester wasn’t obliged to seek alternative employment for 6 months under the terms of his contract. So, whilst staff in TSB were dealing with the fall out from the IT meltdown he created, Mr Pester wasn’t required to find another job.

Members with any questions on this should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029 (choose Option 1).

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