Guinness staff bring in Unison to handle pay reform talks

Public service union Unison is in talks with the Guinness Trust over proposals to overhaul its pay and reward structure.

The talks on linking employees' pay to market rates are the first time Unison has discussed market-related pay with a housing association on a national level.

The news comes little more than a week after Unison signed a recognition agreement with the registered social landlord, entitling the union to act as sole representative for Guinness staff in employment negotiations.

The Guinness Trust first proposed changing the pay and reward structure for its 735 employees across the country more than a year ago. It is understood to hope that market-related pay would take into account factors such as skills demand and regional differences in the cost of living.

A number of other large housing associations are understood to be considering similar pay reforms.

Simon Dow, chief executive of the Guinness Trust, said existing pay structures were old-fashioned and that many staff had reached the highest pay grade available to them.

"We are doing research into different ways of rewarding people, as we need to be able to react to market conditions," said Dow. "There is a skills shortage and we need to be able to attract people from the private sector."

According to research firm Inbucon's 2002 housing salary survey, junior RSL managers in the South-east can expect to earn £22,000.

Colin Meech, Unison's local government officer, said talks were being conducted without conflict. But he said that although Guinness had been hoping to have the new structure in place by early April this year, negotiations were unlikely to be completed in time. "We will continue talks with Guinness and will consult with the employees before reaching a collective opinion," he said.

The trust and the union will soon issue a joint communiqué giving more details of the discussions.

It is understood that Unison was called into negotiations after Guinness staff associations decided they were ill-equipped to conduct such important talks alone. In April 2001, staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of Guinness granting official recognition to Unison.

Meech said Guinness's union recognition agreement marked the beginning of attempts to "unionise the housing association sector". Along with Home Housing Association, the Guinness Trust is one of the largest RSLs to have signed such an agreement with Unison.