Suzy, Drinker Of Coffee

Workplace Propaganda

Communication Workers Union

BRIEFING

Dundee has the lowest pay rates of any ClientLogic site in the UK.

On the 14^th September Search announced that ClientLogic had agreed a pay increase for Search new start employees on this Site to increase their pay to £5.35 per hours. On 1s October this became the new Statutory Minimum Wage.

The Site CWU Committee has for the past two annual pay negotiations been pressing for a significant incremental increase in pay for staff on the Dundee Site.

This year, for the second time, we have had to waive our claim so that the CWU could secure an RPI increase for the whole ClientLogic UK workforce.

We were determined that this would not happen again as the gap between us and the rest of the workforce is growing and we are constantly being told that this is the most successful of all ClientLogic Sites in the UK. We wanted a separate incremental increase in pay for the Dundee Site not connected to national pay negotiations.

This Branch, through our National Officer, had to remind ClientLogic in the middle of the year that they had not yet acted on this undertaking.

We regret to inform you that the CWU has not received the following communication from ClientLogic :-

“Dundee rates of pay

We have reviewed this point in some detail and are currently undertaking some additional research on local pay rates. The issue has been raised with the regional director in the absence of a COO. Regretfully, we have been unable to consider any review within the current financial year which is due to finish end Dec 06.

However, there is a commitment to review this further as part of the site strategy for 2007”.

Your Branch Committee at its meeting on Wednesday agreed without division that you should be informed of this as soon as possible.

We believe that ClientLogic is not acting in accordance with its own values of Integrity, Respect, Teamwork, Leadership, Accountability, and Open Communication.

So what does this mean? Well, sounds like they will only commit to looking at things – and they’ve looked in the past, without stumping up. If you think I am being greedy, facts are facts. For working on a Technical Support campaign, I started work in October 2002 on £5.50 an hour. This was then later raised to £5.76 around three months later, but due to a breakdown in communications on the new procedure, we were not told it was performance related. In Summer 2004, we received our one and only pay rise to date – bringing us to £6.15 – when another employer in the tech park generously increased their rates. These apply to Search agency staff, and ClientLogic salaried staff get a shade more at around £6.50 an hour – but this is salaried, overtime is different, and those of us on the older contracts would lose our enhanced rates for working English bank holidays (note no increase for working any of the four Dundee local holidays, except May day, which is the same for both). Incidentally, did you know one day’s statutory sick pay is equivalent to three hours of our own pay rate?

When I started, bus fares to/from town were 85p/95p for a single, but you could get a discount with multi-journey tickets or cards. Today, the same fares cost £1.15/£1.20 single, with a rise due early next year.

When I started, the internal staff eatery was open from 8am to 7.30pm (ish) Monday to Friday, and until 2pm on Saturdays. Now, it’s only open until 4pm Monday to Friday, and not at all on Saturdays – so while the management are here, it’s open. Otherwise, it’s not. Anyway, when I started, price of something reasonable was around £2.09 – the same now costs £3.70. If only our pay rates had increased by the same as their charges – we’d be on around £9.30 an hour!

That may be a little unrealistic, but it does easily show how the costs can add up, and suddenly that extra 49p an hour from two summers ago no longer seems to be worthwhile. On the days when I’ve had one day off sick, or on an unpaid medical appointment leave etc., I only lose around £10-£15 after tax. I can quite easily spend a fiver on food and drink, plus another couple of quid on bus fares, even with discounted multi-journey tickets. It makes me work out that I’d only be losing just over a fiver if I dropped one of my four days of work a week! Yes I’d still have to eat, but I could always cook something at home i.e. reheat last nights pizza! (oh come on, you know you’ve done it at least once…)

So, how much would I like? I think Agency staff should be at least on a similar amount to the contract workers (a campaign currently being discussed in the European Parliament, but initial indications show Britain is not sure about it). Bear in mind there are other incentives for becoming a contract employee i.e. healthcare, which may or may not appeal to all, and as they seem to be unhappy at the £6.50 mark, maybe around £6.80 an hour would be appropriate, with another 30p-40p next summer. I’d like to see all the sites that do this work, on those amounts, as a minimum (and I know some are on more than that already!). I’d also like to see the other departments i.e. Order Management, brought in close to that. Currently there is a premium of about 50p an hour for working tech – but that may change.

BT could even make it’s first ever price rise – remember many business customers have already had at least two free upgrades, and many more enhancements to the basic service, as well as reduced prices on extras. In effect, the price has gone down, while our wage rates have been almost static. Following the amount of bad press the planned move to India got last year, considerable goodwill could be done. Perhaps even raising the price by 50p a month, specifically to ensure UK based staff keep their jobs, and get a more realistic wage scale. Many broadband lines are paid for by government funds, project awards etc. – so the extra £6 a year would not be missed by many. Every few weeks or month, El Reg, BBC or some other news source, will report a case of an offshore call centre which has become unsafe due to a government overthrow, looting and riots in the streets, flood damage etc., so keeping the work in the UK would be such a bonus. There have, of course, also been the cases of selling customer details to an undercover Channel 4 reporter, or a Sun reporter, and I doubt those would be the last. It would also end the “until further notice” uncertainty, as no-one from management has mentioned the subject of off-shoring since the Spring.

Back to our site, and of course, the cut for the agency and ClientLogic would increase proportionally – so everyone would win. You know what the sad irony is? None of this may even get considered, yet the cost of spending £2,000-£3,000 on training a replacement for everyone who leaves, is considered small change. I’d rather spend the money on keeping staff, rather than having to spend money advertising, recruiting and replacing them. Maybe that’s why I am not in management.

posted by Suzy Scott @ 18:10