Unions representing Rolls-Royce employees say they have avoided a strike by negotiating their members’ wage raise of 17.6 percent.
An estimated 1,200 workers at the company’s West Sussex plant would each receive a 10% raise in salary plus a £2,000 incentive.
Strikes are occurring across a wide variety of businesses as workers try to get pay raises to match growing costs of living.
On Friday, rail workers began a new 48-hour walkout, and other businesses will follow suit the following week.
New data released this week indicated that annual price growth in the 12 months ending in November was 10.7%, the highest rate in about 40 years.
According to statistics collected separately, the disparity between public and private sector salary growth was approaching a record high.
Official data shows that between August and October, private sector workers experienced an annualised pay increase of 6.9%, while public sector workers saw a much more modest increase of 2.7%.
Workers at Rolls’ Goodwood plant, where some of the world’s most costly luxury cars are produced, have been “repeatedly refused… an appropriate salary hike,” according to the Unite union.
The union conducted a consultative vote, and 98% of those who participated said they would take industrial action if their demand for a salary raise in accordance with inflation was not met.
Unite said that the deal represented the largest single payment in the plant’s history at Goodwood.
According to Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, “this is a top-notch pay contract for the Rolls-Royce workforce.”
“The skilled hands of the craftsmen at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars have made the company’s products well-known and instantly recognisable around the world. Workers had been underpaid and underappreciated for a long time, but that is starting to change. The union was able to negotiate the best salary increase since the facility started.”
The union also noted that the accord “considerably” narrowed the wage disparity between workers at Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin.
BMW of Germany, which owns Rolls-Royce, expressed satisfaction that Unite had approved the arrangement to its members.
With effect from January 2023, all employees covered by our collective bargaining agreement will receive a 10% raise.
