Society of Telecom Executives BT MPG pay - change of review date

Action Letter No. 06/98, 27 March 1998 Dear Colleague BT MPG pay - change of review date The STE has now completed negotiations with BT on a compensatory payment for the movement of the MPG pay review date from 1 April to 1 June. Branches were advised that the union had no objections in principle to the change in date but we advised the company that there were a number of outstanding issues that need to be resolved before we could agree to implementation. We have received many communications from branches and individual members raising concerns about the change and the negotiations covered these issues in some detail. The Offer A one-off unconsolidated, non-pensionable sum of £190 will be paid to all MPG people in post on 1 April 1998 and will be paid with April 1998 salaries. The only exceptions will be graduates who are still on the Recruitment Pay Range who will continue to have their salaries reviewed in April and October. All other MPG people including those on special leave, reduced working hours and maternity leave will receive the full payment of £190. Pensionability As the company was not prepared to agree that the payment should be consolidated, we pressed for a facility whereby those who may be retiring could opt to make the payment count for pension purposes. This would have required an employee contribution of 6% to be deducted from the sum. The company insisted that if it were to concede pensionability then this would be only on an all or no-one basis. BT was not prepared to be selective. In addition, the sum would have been reduced considerably to take account of employer and employee pension contributions. BT’s Reasons for the Change The company indicated that it wanted to bring together the MPG salary and bonus review dates. Indeed, at one stage BT said that feedback from the 1997 MPG pay survey had shown that many MPG people favoured this. We pointed out that the STE survey did not show a similar aspiration. During the talks we made it clear that there were potential problems of confusing the two separate issues of pay and bonus and we will be taking this up again in the negotiations on the 1998 pay review. We have also advised the company that it may be necessary to examine the consequences of a June pay review in relation to the timing of the APR round. In making this agreement the union is mindful of the fact that members will have been expecting a pay review from 1 April. The compensation payment is designed to bridge the gap between April and June. Some members will be inconvenienced by the change because increases to major outgoings such as mortgages are often payable from April. However, any change of date will mean problems of this kind for some people and our response has been to secure the highest compensation available by negotiations. A news item about the compensation payment appears in the next issue of The Review which will be despatched over the next few days. Yours sincerely ADRIAN ASKEW Deputy General Secretary - Negotiations

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