As we all know it’s that warm, cosy, heartfelt time of year where we all get together and… discuss pay (and you thought this was going to be a Christmas message!)
We’re proud to have today submitted our ‘Pay Claim’ on behalf of our members at the FCA and PSR to the organisation. You can read our Pay Claim submission in full here or view at the foot of this post.
A Pay Claim is where we as a Branch outline the priorities of our members for pay. These are your asks unanimously approved at our Branch meeting. This is the very first time we, as a Branch, have drafted and submitted a Pay Claim – it’s the right time to take this step as we now sit on the Staff Consultation Committee engaged in pay discussions.
Thank you to all our members who contributed, discussed, challenged and tested the asks we’ve made, particularly our members of the Branch Pay and Cost of Living Working Group. This has truly been a collective effort.
What is our priority claim?
Our priority – A minimum guaranteed pay increase at least in line with inflation (RPI 6.1% for 2023 YTD) regardless of performance grade.
This is a measured and moderate ask. We assume uplfits beyond this will be based on performance. In the last 6 months basic pay uplifts in the public sector have averaged 7.3% and in the financial sector for June-August uplifts stood at 8.8%.
Last year staff were forced to compete for real-terms pay cuts without any staff consultation whatsoever in the midst of a harsh cost of living crisis. Our priority is to protect the current value of our work and build a long-term plan to revalue our worth as staff from there.
What’s the catch?
We’re on the SCC, but we do not have collective bargaining powers that a recognised Union would have. This means the organisation is choosing to ‘consult’ staff but has refused to negotiate with staff on pay. This is effective progress on last year, but make no bones about it, in practice this means that staff at the FCA and PSR have some of the fewest rights and protections of any public sector employee in the UK when it comes to having a voice and say on our pay and contractual terms.
One impact of this is that the FCA have been able to ignore the majority of our information request. This means that Staff Reps are in an extremely difficult position in offering an informed opinion on the organisations upcoming pay offer for 2024. If we were a recognised Union, the FCA would by law be required to provide us with any and all information necessary to discuss pay
Can the FCA and PSR afford our asks?
With the scant information we have been provided, YES. Their Annual Report and Accounts suggest that the organisation has been very bouyant position for the last two years. In 2021-22 the FCA reported a surplus of £112.m – the equivalent of a third of the total staffing budget. This contributed to 2022-23 FCA ORA reserves standing at 13% of ORA expenditure, significantly exceeding the upper threshold limit of 10%. The FCA stated its aim is to target reserves at the midpoint of 8% of ORA expenditure.
This resulted in the choice in 2022-23 to invest significantly in FCA data infrastructure to draw down these reserves. That resulted in a £52.1m deficit last year despite FCA operating costs being £30m lower than income.
This means that, overall, the FCA’s limited awards on staff pay during a cost-of-living crisis have been choices, and not driven by necessity. The same applies for next year’s pay award.
We therefore reach the conclusion that the FCA has the capacity through 1) previous budget surpluses, 2) excess ORA reserves, 3) FSMA powers to raise fees to cover ORA, and 4) year-on-year sustained increases in income, to meet the pay asks of its staff outlined in this document.
What else did we ask for?
The FCA’s 2023 Employee Survey showed that the majority of staff did not agree that ‘people here are paid fairly for the work they do’ – one of the persistent poorest outcomes in the Survey. Our ‘asks’ in this document therefore represent where staff have identified harms and unintended consequences in current pay practices and policies that drive these poor outcomes and propose solutions to address these.
This includes:
- General pay uplifts – For our 2024 to meet inflation regardless of performance grade, for all staff to be paid at least the minimum of their pay scale, and for the organisation to develop a long-term sustainable strategy for achieving real-term year-on-year pay increases for the next 5 years – restoring the value of working for the FCA and PSR.
- Performance pay – Using fair, clear and not misleading language on pay comms, lower increments between performance grade pay uplfits to fund the cost of living for all, and to flatten pay awards per grade.
- Objectively low pay – Benchmark pay scale minimums to at least the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Minimum Income Standard’ (now at £29,500 per annum for a single person).
- Protected Characteristic Pay Gaps – Proactively identify, assess and redress pay gap cases based on protected characteristics, include age in DEI gap reporting, and consult staff affected by changes to Government ‘Skilled Worker’ visa rules.
- National and Corporate pay scales – Review the impact of National pay scales, uplift National pay scales each year until the gap with London pay scales are eliminated, and close the gap between Corporate and Supervision Hub pay scales with Regulatory pay scales.
- Benefits – Reduce health insurance premiums for apprentices and part-time staff, upgrade the advance salary scheme, and establish a staff crisis fund.
- Information, data and transparency – Provide Staff Reps with all information on pay, performance, benefits, leave, benchmarking, finance and operations needed to participate in pay consultations and reach an informed position on behalf of staff.
What next?
We have submitted our ‘Pay Claim’ to the organisation and look forward to discussing the details of this claim and our priorities with HR through the SCC. We expect that ExCo will decide the Staffing Budget for next year early in January and announce their pay offer by the end of January.
Once we receive a pay offer from the organisation, we will ballot our members on whether or not they accept the offer.
