Performance pay

Members of professional union Prospect employed in non-industrial jobs at Devonport dockyard staged a highly successful strike at the end of August in protest at a “shoddy” performance pay system. The union says it would deny satisfactory performers the chance of ever getting the rate for the job, by reserving pay progression payments solely for good or excellent performers.

Fourteen hundred specialist engineers, managers and administration staff walked or drove out halfway through their shifts, despite being put under a lot of pressure not to come out, said Del Northcott, Prospect branch secretary.