Rolls-Royce is to give £2,000 as a one-off payment to 14,000 of its UK workers in the latest sign of employers reacting to the cost of living crisis.
The UK aero-engine group told staff that it would give the cash lump sum to 11,000 shop-floor workers as well as 3,000 junior managers. The shop-floor workers are also being offered a 4 per cent pay rise for 2022, backdated to March.
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.
The company is among a handful of employers that have decided to award employees additional pay to help with rising food and energy costs in recent weeks. Lloyds Bank this month announced that 64,000 employees would receive a £1,000 bonus.
In a memo to staff outlining the offer, Warren East, Rolls-Royce chief executive, 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 goes on to say that a “simple wage increase” is “just not affordable and, in fact it would be irresponsible”, adding 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”.
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