GXO pay offer worth double digits for many out to ballot
Telecoms & Financial Services, GXO May 18 2023
Members across GXO are being urged to accept a CWU-brokered pay deal which delivers a fully consolidated rise of £1,500 for all ex-BT Supply Chain warehouse employees and base pay uplifts for drivers averaging 19%, with some receiving up to 53%.
The company’s final offer, which is currently out to ballot, addresses longstanding CWU concerns that base pay levels for drivers were well below market rates – an argument that BT itself tacitly accepted in September 2021 when it took emergency steps to deal with a full-blown staff retention crisis.
Faced with a post-Covid and Brexit exodus of experienced drivers that was threatening to derail BT’s intricate Supply Chain operation, BT had no option but to introduce a range of “temporary” new allowances ranging from £100 per week (£433 a month) for HGV class 1 & 2 drivers – with van divers receiving a lower supplement of £50 per week (£216) a month.
However, despite reluctantly agreeing to CWU demands for a driver grading review – something that was overtaken by the subsequent outsourcing announcement – Supply Chain bosses always insisted the allowances were ‘time limited’ and would be subject to quarterly reviews that could lead to their removal with just three months notice.
As such, following last year’s mass-TUPE of Supply Chain drivers to GXO, the CWU and GXO agreed to negotiate the incorporation of the unconsolidated and non-pensionable ‘Transport Retention Bonus/ Skills Payments’ into base wages – with the breakthrough coming in this year’s pay talks.
A detailed breakdown of the proposed new driver rates can be seen in GXO Logistics Members’ Bulletin No.87/2023. In summary, however, once the allowances have been replaced with consolidated pay, and an additional 4% increase applied on top of that, ex-Supply Chain drivers are now on course to receive fully consolidated and pensionable overall rises in base pay of between 9% and 53%. Those in-between are set to receive rises of 17%, 19% and 27% respectively under the offer – and the average increase across the whole range of CWU-represented van and HGV drivers is 19%.
Ex-Supply Chain warehouse members and non-drivers, meanwhile, are on course to receive a flat-rate increase of £1,500, which equates to fully consolidated and pensionable increases averaging 5.89%, with lower paid staff – who represent the majority – receiving more.
If accepted by members in the forthcoming ballot, the rises will be paid in June salaries, backdated to April.
CWU national officer Tracey Fussey told CWU News: “The CWU National Team would like to thank all our ex-Supply Chain members in GXO for the patience and support throughout what has been a complex set of negotiations which have concluded with an outcome we can wholeheartedly recommend to members,
“For drivers in particular we believe that GXO’s final offer is a complete vindication of the CWU’s longstanding position that a proper review of driver pay was desperately needed – with the deal on the table providing a level of certainty and clarity on base pay rates that has hitherto been lacking.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this offer is the very best that could be received through negotiation, and I’d urge members to give it their full support.”
An electronic consultative ballot commenced on Tuesday – and the poll will close at 10am on May 30, with the result being announced later that day.