Rolls-Royce Car Factory Workers Get Record Pay Rise in UK
Faced with continued shortages of staff, private sector employers are agreeing deals with unions to ward off the threat of disruption.
(Bloomberg) -- Workers at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. will receive as much as an 18% pay increase, which the Unite union claimed was a record increase.
Around 1,200 staff who put together the luxury brand’s Phantom, Ghost and Cullinan models at its factory in Goodwood voted in favor of a 10% wage increase along with a one-off payment of £2,000 ($2,430), the union said in a statement Friday. That translates into pay rises between 14.8% and 17.6% over one year for the grades of staff represented by Unite, it said.
Strikes are sweeping Britain as workers in various sectors — including the health system, Royal Mail, civil service and railways — demand steep pay hikes to cope with rising prices. For public sector workers, the government insists it can’t allow higher raises without the risk of embedding inflation and making the cost of living crisis even worse.
Read More: Britain Suffers Most Days Lost to Strikes Since Thatcher
Faced with continued shortages of staff, private sector employers are agreeing deals with unions to ward off the threat of disruption. This week, Felixstowe, Britain’s biggest container port, said that its workers had accepted a pay deal that would lift wages 8.5% next year.
“The union has won the best pay deal since the site opened,” said Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, in the statement.
The company confirmed the 10% pay rise from next month and said “negotiations were cordial and constructive throughout.” Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW AG.
(Adds the company’s response in the final paragraph.)
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