Whilst TSB has tried to put the cat back in the bag, the truth of what’s going to happen over the next 12 months was revealed by Sabadell last week. Mr. Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno, the Sabadell Chief Executive Officer, said when the results were announced last week that a £29 million provision was booked by TSB for costs cuts. When asked if it would involve a reduction in Bank staff and branches, he replied: “Yes, it will include both” but he did not put a number on either.
That’s a lot of jobs and a lot of branches!
TSB has said that “despite the headlines, any further potential changes are still some way off”. We don’t believe that.
TSB reported record profits of £237.2 million, up 29.3% from the previous year. Trumpeting the results, Mr. Robin Bulloch, TSB’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“The strong financial results we shared yesterday are a real testament to the hard work of everyone at TSB over the last 12 months. Thank you all for your contribution and for your ongoing work…”
Sabadell, TSB’s parent company, is going to be significantly better off than staff, as a result of the record profits. TSB paid a £50 million dividend payment last year. This year it plans to pay £120 million. It’s the second year of record profits, and TSB should have used some of that dividend payment to give staff an inflation busting pay increase.
To put the TSB pay increase into context, Lloyds staff are getting pay increases of up to 14% of salary at the lowest grade, including another cost of living payment of £500 in December 2023.
TSB’s offer will mean a salary increase of 4% for staff in grades B-E and 3.25% for staff in grade F. The latest RPI inflation figure was 5.2% in January 2024 and whilst that is set to fall over the coming months the fact is that price increases are already baked into the system. Since inflation began to rise in April 2021, costs have risen by almost a fifth in the last two years. Energy prices have almost doubled and food prices have increased by over 25%. The vast majority of prices aren’t falling, they are just not going up as much.
A 4% pay increase for TSB staff is still going to see them significantly worse off at a time when TSB has produced record profits. That doesn’t seem fair and it isn’t.
We will be producing a further analysis of the Bank’s pay proposals next week. In the meantime, members with any questions can contact the Union’s Bedford Office on 01234 716029 (Choose Option 1).
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN TSB.