Engineering pay settlements remain steady

Pay
settlements in the engineering and manufacturing sector have remained at 2.4
per cent, according to the latest figures from the Engineering Employers’
Federation (EEF).

However,
over this latest three-month period, the number of pay freezes has increased to
17.5 per cent, the highest figure reported for 12 months.

This
is in sharp contrast to the number of companies reporting that they had
deferred settlements, which fell to 4.5 per cent, the lowest figure for almost
two years.

The
average settlement level for the three months to the end of June 2003 was 2.4 per
cent, the same as the revised figure for the previous three-month period.

EEF
deputy director of employment policy, David Yeandle, said: "The Monetary
Policy Committee’s decision to cut interest rates last week is clearly
vindicated by this combination of continuing low settlement levels and the high
number of companies deferring pay settlements in the manufacturing
sector."

Settlement
level (per cent)    Number of settlements

Zero
(pay freeze)                      54
0.01-2.00                                 46
(42 settlements at 2 per cent exactly)
2.01-3.00                                 157
(100 at 3 per cent exactly)
3.01-4.00                                 47
(18 at 4 per cent exactly)
4.01-5.00                                 4
(1 at 5 per cent exactly)
5.01-6.00                                 1

6.00 or more                            0

The
July 2003 Pay Bulletin analyses 309 settlements affecting 64,826 employees. Of
these, the average level of settlements was 2.4 per cent in April, 2.6 per cent
in May and 1.9 per cent in June, with the figures for both May and June based
on relatively small samples.

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These
figures may be liable for revision to take into account settlements for this period
that have not yet been received.

By Ben Willmott