Pay attention chaps, French, Spanish and Portugese conditions and salaries were discussed at length on this forum before the initial ballot.
Having sat and pondered, my thoughts are:
*Management have proved to be devious liers having 'found' resources to make a slightly improved offer after saying categorically there wasn't a cent left in the barrel.
*the magic 10% figure some seem to salivate over is only nearly attainable if you compound all the bits of the offer onto your current salary. If you add each year's bits onto that year's starting salary, the figures look much more modest...and for modest read disappointing.
*The above thought is especially pertinent to the 1.8% which will only be implimented in the last month of this (Management defined) pay deal timescale, and is nothing more than a bargaining chip for management when it comes to the next pay round.
Plus, how anyone can include this in the calculation of the overall increase is beyond me as you aint going to see it for another 15 months.
It's the usual story......jam tomorrow.
*There's an extra 1% NI to be deducted.
*The offer of overtime is a three-pronged tool for management:
1. They hope it will be a softener to make the offer look more attractive
2. It's a desperate attempt by them to cover up for the woeful shortstaffing and mismanagement of recruiting/training in the past.
3. The moment we accept overtime in principle, then Management can close the book on any WPP issues concerning hours and fatigue.
*Have all unit managers agreed to buy back TOIL at the quoted rate or will they be duty bound to do so ? I think we should all be clear on our respective unit's position.
I think Prospect have acted as they should; they represented us and are now coming back to us with the new offer. Whether I believe they are right to recommend it is another issue altogether.
Management, despite their front men, are seriously cacking their corporate M&S Y-fronts because, for once, we've had the mettle to stand up to them.
We still have the upper hand, the motivation and now the inertia to reject this offer and press for a real substantial increase to all our basic salaries.
My view remains that this offer is devious, paltry and inadequate; as such, my opinion remains that to say NO is the only way I will be able to vote.
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