An ‘unprecedented’ number of employees at the Financial Conduct Authority are seeking union recognition, according to the Unite union.
The City regulator began a consultation last month into changes to employees’ terms and pay. Unite believes this could leave three out of four workers facing a pay cut of 10%, but have little impact on the salaries of its leadership team.
Yesterday (12 October) the union launched a staff petition to secure the right to be formally recognised by the FCA, which would be the first time in the organisation’s history.
The union claims that resignations are “rising by the day” and that the regulator cannot recruit replacement staff to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, staff membership of Unite has quadrupled since the consultation was announced.
Dominic Hook, Unite national officer said staff were feeling “demoralised” by the consultation.
They “feel it is a poor way to reward FCA staff who worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to deliver credit cards and mortgage payment holidays that were a lifeline to people up and down the country”, he said.
“The significant growth in trade union membership demonstrates that the recognition of an independent trade union at the FCA is long overdue.
“Unite is the union for staff across the financial services sector and it is essential for the regulator to ensure that this dedicated workforce has an independent and strong trade union in their corner, rather than simply being ignored by management.”
One of the proposals in the consultation is to scrap a one-off bonus for all staff after the FCA was accused of poor oversight of recent financial collapses.
The staff consultation argues that it “has become increasingly difficult to justify these one-off payments following the publication of two independent reviews, which found that we acted too slowly and with insufficient creativity and assertiveness to prevent harm to consumers”.
Unite further claims that CEO Nikhil Rathi has proposed allowing the highest-earning staff to be paid more in direct salary to avoid caps on tax breaks for pensions.
An FCA spokesperson said: “Our colleagues have always had a choice about how they are represented and some are members of a trade union. There is a statutory process for a trade union seeking recognition.”
The FCA added that base pay would not be cut as a result of the proposed changes, and that it was proposing pay increases for the next two financial years for colleagues that meet their performance objectives.
Any union seeking recognition at the organisation would need to demonstrate it has membership of 10% or more of all colleagues – Unite is yet to begin this process, the FCA said. The organisation already has a Staff Consultative Committee made up of employees and managers, and the FCA is liaising closely with this committee on the proposed changes.
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