Unions vow to fight Virgin pay switch

UNIONS representing workers at Virgin Media have told the Labour Court that they are vehemently opposed to the introduction of performance related pay at the company.

Siptu and Unite state that they are seeking straightforward pay increases and are vehemently opposed to the introduction to performance related pay and a benchmarking median developed by consultants Wills Tower being introduced.

Assistant Siptu organiser Martin Mannion said yesterday that he was not confident that the dispute can be resolved “and we could find ourselves in an industrial action situation”.

Mr Mannion said his members are getting angry and that Siptu along with Unite, representing around a total of 400 workers, are due to hold talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Monday where Virgin Media will also be in attendance.

The talks are to take place after the Labour Court referred the issue to the Commission.

At the Labour Court, Virgin Media, owned by billionaire John Malone, stated that its parent company requires it to move to performance-related pay (PRP) model but also that it makes good market sense.

The company contends that PRP is the norm in the telecommunications sector and that it has operated a performance appraisal system for some time but is now looking to link that to pay.

Virgin Media stated that it is “seeking to effect greater competitiveness and to incentivise its staff by applying performance-related pay increases rather than the historical application of a flat percentage increase across all unionised grades”.

The company told the Labour Court that its proposal to move to PRP in 2018 “is realistic, reasonable and pragmatic”.