The MAN05 pay agreement was reached in March 2004. Since then, Amicus has been monitoring the Company's progress towards implementing the agreement. By now we had hoped to be able to tell you that everything has been resolved, but unfortunately this is not the case. The current state of play is as follows:
1.1 Zero increases
In the April pay increase, all staff were supposed to receive at least 1% unless they were "red circled" or being managed via the Conduct or Capability policies. However, there are a number of members of staff who were not in these categories but received 0%. Following pressure from Amicus, the Company has begun to investigate all of these cases. There are some cases where the person concerned should have been red circled, and therefore would not be entitled to an increase, but there are others where the 0% is an oversight/mistake/etc. The Company has agreed that some of these people will receive an increase, but we are still in discussions about the others.
1.2 (Other) less than 1% increases
As stated earlier, all staff were supposed to receive at least 1% unless they were "red circled" or excluded for disciplinary reasons. Some staff have received slightly less than 1%. This is believed to be due to rounding down; producing an increase that is a whole number of pounds rather than percent. The amount of money involved is tiny and as such it would cost the Company considerably more to implement these changes than the total amount that the individuals would receive. Amicus acknowledges this, but we would like the Company to either stick to the principle of "everyone to receive at least a 1% increase", or to contact the people who have not received the full 1%, to apologise, and explain why. We'd like the company also to instruct managers to honour the agreed percentage in full in future reviews. Amicus appreciates the anger this will cause its members, particularly those affected, from the inability of the company to honour the agreement to the letter.
1.3 Below benchmark
A significant number of staff on site are currently being paid less than the Company's own minimum 2003 benchmark salary for their grade. The relevant part of the agreement was:
For employees who are paid below the bottom of their benchmark range, the Company will document and discuss with the individual a plan to bring them up to at least that level.
In this case the amounts of money involved are very significant.
The Company's progress on this issue is very slow. Amicus had requested that all affected individuals would be able to discuss their "plan to bring them up to benchmark" with their line manager by the end of June. The Company initially agreed to this timetable, but it has since slipped. The Company have proposed a new timetable, which we shall be meeting with them soon to discuss.
1.4 Non-standard mappings
The Company have recently carried out an exercise to map many members of staff from old to new grades. This was intended to be a purely administrative operation, and indeed most people have been mapped in a straightforward manner. However, there are a large number of staff who have been mapped in a non-standard way. The relevant part of the agreement was:
The Company has begun to conduct an analysis of current Community coding against the mapping exercise carried out from the previous Community codes. Any employee can access their personal details via Café VIK or HRDirect. The Company will write to each employee, informing them of their new code. Any non-standard mappings will be identified and reasons for the decision given. An appeal process will be established to allow for the correction of inappropriate coding. Where the appeal process identifies incorrect mappings, the employee will be moved to the correct role and detail code. Where this has resulted in a lower pay rise for the individual in the 2004 pay review, this will be addressed. Any such increases will be backdated to 1 April 2004.
As above, the Company's progress on this issue has been slow. Again Amicus requested that individuals be contacted by the end of June, again the Company agreed, and again the date has slipped. The Company are still investigating the non-standard mappings, and have not yet written to employees to inform them of their new code. Worse still, AMICUS has learnt that mappings continue to be implemented without people being informed when they have been mapped. We are continuing to pursue this matter.