Yahoo Finance Rolls-Royce gives £2,000 cost of living bonus to staff
Rolls-Royce (RR.L) is to give £2,000 as a one-off payment to 14,000 of its UK workers to help with the rising cost of living in the UK.
The UK aero-engine group told staff on Monday that that it is offering the lump sum as well as a 4% pay rise backdated to March to 11,000 shopfloor workers in its UK manufacturing plants. Around 3,000 junior managers will also receive the lump sum.
Read more: Lloyds Bank pays staff £1,000 bonus to help with cost of living
Rolls-Royce is one of the largest manufacturers in the UK, employing just under 20,000 people at its plants across the country, including at sites in Derby and Bristol.
Under the proposals, first reported by Sky News, junior managers will receive the bonus in August. Union members will receive it once the offer has been accepted by Unite, the union.
Chief Executive Warren East was said to have decided the pay rise was vital to maintain morale among the workforce.
In a memo to staff outlining the offer, East said: “We are living through exceptional times, with economic uncertainty largely driven by the continuing impact of the global pandemic and more recently the war in Ukraine.
“All of this is impacting each of us at home, at work and in our pockets.” East added that a “simple wage increase” is “just not affordable and, in fact it would be irresponsible”, saying that it would damage the company’s “future competitiveness in the UK, by adding too much cost into the long-term wage bill at times of such high uncertainty”.
Earlier this month Lloyds Bank announced measures to help staff cope with rising costs, as energy bills continue to soar and UK inflation hits a 40-year high.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that while wages increased by an average of 4.2% in the three months to April, in real terms they are falling at the fastest rate in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, Morrisons became the latest supermarket to announce a pay rise for its workers. The retailer has increased its hourly rate to £10.20.
Read more: Interest rates: Higher UK inflation will trigger multiple hikes, warns BoE economist
The Bank of England has predicted inflation could hit 11% this year.
The BoE’s governor has asked companies to not raise salaries as the Bank reins in inflation.
“We do need to see restraint in pay bargaining otherwise it will get out of control,” Andrew Bailey said in February. His remarks were branded as a “sick joke” by unions, given the governor’s own salary of nearly £500,000.
Watch: How does inflation affect interest rates?
