The offer includes an underpinning minimum award of £500 for lower-paid employees in grades A1 and A2.

The increase, negotiated in July, is distributed through an agreed performance matrix, which also takes account of an individual’s position in the pay range. During negotiations Prospect was able to secure an outcome in which:

• 77% would receive an increase of at least 2% in basic pay
• 60% would receive an increase of 2.5% or more
• 40% would receive an increase of 3% or more.

In addition the pay bands have been revalorised to reflect market pay data, provided by Towers Watson; Hay and other independent pay databases.

Prospect national secretary David Luxton said: “Negotiations were difficult because of the significant pressure from the Ministry of Defence on AWE to manage its costs, and the average increases for individual members are reasonable, taking account of falling inflation.”

Redundancies

Last month Prospect expressed its shock at the news of 500 job losses, primarily affecting business support areas, including site facilities.

Prospect negotiator Richard Tabbner said: “We will be closely examining the company’s business and safety cases for such large-scale redundancies. Our priority is to ensure that the reduction in posts is managed on a voluntary basis and to minimise enforced redundancies.”