Engineers pay deals sink to 12-month low

Pay
settlements in engineering and manufacturing have fallen to their lowest level
in a year according to the latest figures from the Engineering Employers’
Federation (EEF).

For
the three months to the end of August, the level of settlements fell to 2.3 per
cent having remained steady at 2.4 per cent for the previous three months.

In
addition, the number of pay freezes has increased to almost 18 per cent of
settlements, the highest figure for more than 12 months.

Pay
deferrals have also remained at a relatively high level of nearly 6 per cent,
the highest figure since January 2003.

Deputy
director of employment policy at the EEF, David Yeandle, said: "These
figures show that, despite the gradually improving economic outlook, many
manufacturing companies are still facing a difficult business environment which
requires them to manage their controllable costs carefully." 

Settlement
level (per cent)   Number of
settlements 

Zero
(pay freeze)                    30   
0.01-2.00                                  24 
(21 settlements at 2 per cent exactly)   
2.01-3.00                                  84 
(39 at 3 per cent exactly)
3.01-4.00                                  26 
(2 at 4 per cent exactly)      
4.01 or more                             5     

The
September 2003 Pay Bulletin analyses 169 settlements in the three month period
to the end of August affecting 22,419 employees.

Of
these, the average level of settlements was 1.8 per cent in June, 2.5 per cent
in July and 2.4 per cent in August, with the figures for both June and August
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