When it comes to pay, it seems that David Schwimmer had done a lot better than TSB staff.
We said that the 2021 pay award was going to be more important than ever before for TSB staff. The Retail Price Index (RPI), which is the measure of inflation used for negotiating pay increases, is currently 1.2%. TSB is proposing a pay increase of just 0.75% for all grades B-F. Even taking into account the minimum increase of £200, all TSB staff will be getting increases less than the cost of living. And, if that isn’t bad enough, the current RPI rate is set to increase before the salary increases announced today become effective, making the shortfall even worse.
So, for the third year TSB salaries will be increasing more slowly than the rising cost of the goods and services we all use every day. What about ‘Money Confidence’ for TSB staff?
In Lloyds, and that pay deal wasn’t particularly generous, the pay pot was 1.2% with a minimum increase of £400. That means many of the staff in the lowest grades will get salary increases above the rate of inflation. That won’t happen in the TSB, however, hard the two staff unions try to dress it up. In fact, Accord is so scared of losing the financial support it gets from TSB, that it won’t even say whether it supports the pay increase or not. Unite has fewer than 100 members in TSB and so they are ignored by everyone.
TSB should have used this year’s pay round as an opportunity to drive staff pay closer to the rate for their job. And let us not forget, TSB staff have had the worst pay increases of any bank or financial services company for the last few years. That’s going to continue for another year. Is it any wonder that TSB’s engagement scores are so low when it continuously underpays its staff, relative to what’s happening in the wider marketplace?
Members with any questions should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029 (choose Option 1).