Capita retains TVL contract – but makes ‘unacceptably low’ pay offer to workers
Capita February 22 2022
A ‘mixed bag’ of news for our members working for service provider Capita this week, as good news on job security is tempered by a disappointing wage proposal…
“We’re glad the hard work and dedication of our members has secured the contract to continue providing television licensing services for the BBC, but we’ve told the company they must do better on pay,” said CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey this afternoon.
In a public statement last Friday, Capita TVL managing director Paul Johnston announced: “We have secured a five-year contract extension to continue partnering with the BBC to administer the TV Licence in the UK.
“The contract renewal will run from July 2022 until June 2027 and is testament to the hard work you have all been doing to support our partner for more than 20 years,” he added.
This news was warmly welcomed by Andy, who told CWU News: “This was a positive development and means our hard-working admin and field members working on the TVL contract now know their jobs are more secure for the next five years.
“But,” he continued, “it was massively disappointing to receive a 2022 pay offer that was significantly below the current cost of living – and today’s Postal Executive unanimously endorsed my recommendation to reject this as totally inadequate.”
Capita has once again confirmed it will apply the Real Living Wage (RLW) as a minimum from 1st April 2022. This means that those members impacted would receive an increase from £9.50 per hour to £9.90 per hour, which is broadly a 4.2 per cent pay increase.
“However,” Andy continues, “whilst this is relatively good news, it still falls significantly short of the current inflation rates which are set to continue to rise and why should the RLW be the standard default position, when our members naturally would aspire to be paid better?
“You would have thought the company could have at least made it £10 per hour. Their current offer indicates a lack of any real desire by Capita to improve our members’ standards of living.
“The headline offer for those members currently earning above the RLW also falls considerably short of the spiralling cost of living, with the retail price index (RPI) having risen to 7.8 per cent for January and the consumer index (CPI) up to 5.5 per cent – which was why the Postal Executive has rejected the offer,” Andy explained.
“We also had submitted proposals for a shorter working week and for pensions scheme improvements, neither of which featured at all within Capita TVL’s proposals which is a further disappointment, especially as pensions is such an important area for the well-being of workers in the future.”
Andy and his negotiating team are now seeking further meetings with Capita, with the aim of securing an improved offer.
“The contract extension was great news for our members – but Mr Johnston, you need to do much better on pay and we really have to start making progress on pensions.”
For further information, please see LTB 081/21