The annual negotiations between FMB and the Unite union to set the BATJIC pay and conditions agreement for 2011/12 have concluded.
THE AGREEMENT
The result of the agreement is that the three headline rates will rise by one percent, effective from Monday 12 September 2011. All other rates including skill rates, apprentice rates, and benefits will remain unchanged. The new rates will be as the table below:
BATJIC also agreed that workers operating under the agreement should be paid the additional bank holiday announced to celebrate the Royal wedding (Friday 29 April 2011).
This time last year, the FMB reached a modest agreement of two percent and the negotiating team had hoped that market conditions would have recovered sufficiently to enable the 2011/12 round to do something to recognise the contribution of the workers to keeping firms going during the long deep recession we are still in. This has not happened and the recovery seems just as far away now as it did then. The construction SME sector has been in recession for three years and the outlook for the industry as a whole remains bleak with contractions of two percent and 0.7 percent expected in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Under these circumstances, this settlement reflects the fact that although inflation demands an increase, the industry cannot accommodate anything approaching the current rate of RPI inflation without putting jobs at risk, and we commend Unite for putting their members’ interests first by agreeing to a modest settlement considerably short of where both sides would like to be.
