Settlements rise to 2.6%

Pay settlements look set to vary widely as companies with different prospects adjust to higher inflation, judging by newly negotiated industrial pay deals which range from 2.5% to an inflation-beating 5.3% says Workplace Report, the Labour Research Department’s monthly magazine for negotiators.

Pay awards of 3.9% at Heinz, 4% at SKF and 4.6% at Shell (Stanlow) reflect the lead now being taken in some industrial bargaining groups and manufacturing companies. They include a number of new long-term deals, even though union reps surveyed at the end of last year generally saw these as being less likely to be negotiated in 2011.

And if these deals continue at this level they could help lift or at least sustain the overall going settlement rate.

The latest figures from Payline, the Labour Research Department database of collective agreements, show a three-monthly median (mid-point) increase to December of 2.6% — up from 2.5% in November. There is some variation within the settlement figures from Payline: the median in the private sector is 2.5% while for the public sector it is 4.6%, and manufacturing has a median of 2.5% while that for services is 3.3%.

www.lrd.org.uk/index.php?pagid=18