Steel manufacturing organisation British Steel has offered a 4% pay increase to 4,800 employees based in the UK and France.
The pay rise, which will be delivered over a two-year period, forms part of an in-principle agreement with trade unions Community, GMB and Unite for 2017’s pay and conditions claim.
Formal agreement to the pay deal will be finalised once the trade unions involved have undertaken ballots to gain consent from members who are British Steel employees.
Peter Bernscher, chief executive officer at British Steel, said: “The hard work and dedication of our people has helped us start the turnaround of our business and, while there’s a long way to go if we’re to become truly sustainable, we wanted to recognise their valued contributions.
“I’d like to thank the unions for their support during this ongoing process, and our employees for their commitment to building a stronger future for British Steel.”
A spokesperson at Unite added: “We are in the process of balloting our members on the reported deal. The ballot comes with a recommendation to accept the offer given the current financial status of the [organisation] and the industry. The ballot closes on 30 November.”
Ross Murdoch, national officer at GMB, said: “GMB welcomes the fact that British Steel has recognised changes in the financial reality and have improved [its] offer. It seems [it] acknowledges the hard work and commitment from [its] skilled workforce and has found new money to reward them. We are recommending members accept and are out to ballot on the new offer at the moment.”
