Unite loses bid to represent workers at City watchdog

BRITAIN’S largest trade union has failed to represent staff at the City watchdog in a pay row over a lack of proof partly tied to homeworking.

Workers at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which polices the country’s banks, last week kicked off the first strike to hit the regulator.

They called for more pay and played Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley outside its London headquarters.

Amid the escalating pay dispute, Unite, which has 600 members at the FCA, had applied to officially become

the representative of the watchdog’s socalled bargaining unit which has around 3,900 staff. However, an independent body has ruled there is not enough evidence to prove that most workers would support the move.

The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) has claimed the union responded

to a request for proof by saying that “since Covid employees of the company had been working from home and therefore the union had been unable to hold any face-to-face meetings with them”. It added that Unite said in a letter last month it faced problems organising action at the FCA, as “staff had been working from home, it had not been able to use the internal communications facilities of the employer and it had been unable to organise physical meetings”.

Unite said the CAC’S decision does not change anything for the union or staff at the FCA, who will continue their

industrial action. A spokesman said: “All eyes are now on FCA management

to see if they will hold a free vote on union recognition. Unite will be considering the next steps.”

The FCA has been battling dissent for months, with Nikhil Rathi, chief executive, under fire over pay reforms that

staff claim will lead to three in four employees facing pay cuts of 10pc.

An FCA spokesman said earlier this year its new pay package means most

staff will get an average 7pc pay rise this year and 12pc over the next two years, with an extra one-off payment in May.

A spokesman said: “Following the CAC’S decision, we want to have

an open conversation with all our colleagues about how their voice is

represented.”