Bolton-based employees at engineering organisation GNB Industrial Power, who are members of the trade union Unite, are to receive an overall 5% pay rise as well as increases to their basic salary.
Employees have been awarded a 2% pay rise, backdated to April 2017, and will receive a further 3% pay increase from April 2018. Employees’ basic salary has also been increased as part of the pay deal. This has been achieved by consolidating certain allowances and segments of bonus pay and including this in employees’ basic wages. Unite predicts this change will add £2,300 a year to employees’ annual basic salary.
Unite members based at GNB Industrial Power will see their average basic pay increase by approximately £3,500 as a result of the new deal, with average salaries increasing from £21,997.76 to £25,554.08 as at April 2018.
The pay deal was a result of four days of strike action undertaken by Unite members earlier this month, organised as a response to a 1.5% pay offer from GNB Industrial Power. Employees who are Unite members planned an overtime ban, as well as a series of 24 and 48-hour strikes to take place between January and March 2018, in protest of the pay offer. Following the initial four days of industrial action, GNB Industrial Power management agreed to pay deal negotiations with Unite.
With previous allowances now consolidated into basic pay, the extra money available will go towards employees’ pension provision.
Ross Quinn, regional officer at Unite, said: “The workforce took a brave stand against paltry pay. As a result, the engineers secured a major pay boost to their basic salary at a time when earnings across the North West are at a standstill.
“The win means [employees’] basic pay will increase on average by £3,500. By consolidating the allowances into the [employees’] basic pay it means more stability and the extra money will go towards their pensions. It shows what [employees] can achieve when they stand together and they have a strong union backing them.”
GNB Industrial Power is unavailable for comment at time of publication.
