Energy Retail Pay Update
Now that the pay deal has been sent out for everyone to read through, it may be helpful to go into a few points in more detail to give an insight into the talks that took place.
Energy Retail as a whole is not expected to make a profit for this financial year. The economic situation in the country as we all know has led to many job losses, causing customers to go into debt, making them unable to afford the rising cost of energy bills etc. Whilst these factors are out with our control, Management felt that they could not justify a pay rise given the current financial performance of the Retail business and therefore proposed a 0% award for 2012 with only a guaranteed 1% in 2013. Members of the ERJNCF felt this was unacceptable as staff are working hard to try and achieve results and with inflation at 5% the cost of living is continuing to rise.
Further talks led to an improved offer of 1% for 2012 and a minimum of 2% in 2013, going up to 4% if EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) targets are exceeded. After much discussion it was made clear that this was the best offer that the company were ina position to offer. Whilst we would have hoped for a higher figure to recognise the work of a loyal workforce, we have to also consider job security given that other energy suppliers are suffering the same losses in their retail sectors. Many of them have had to cut jobs or sell off failing parts of their business in order to balance the performance of the company as a whole.
Taking all of the above factors into account, the members of the ERJNCF agreed to a Fully Recommended Settlement.
The ballot papers for the pay deal will be issued in January with a two week voting period.
Every member should use their vote and also think carefully about all of the factors above when considering whether they are willing to accept the terms on offer.
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