Lloyds to hand back pay to 10,000 employees who were refused a pay rise

18th Nov 2014 09:48

Lloyds Banking Group is set to give hundreds of pounds each back to almost 10,000 current and former employees, who were refused a pay rise.The staff will receive the payments after a long-running dispute between the lender and the LTU union over contracts that staff were asked to sign after the rescue of HBOS in 2008."These are not Libor-rigging investment bankers but women trying to do the best for their families. They deserved better from Lloyds Banking Group," said Mark Brown, general secretary of the LTU.The union said the contracts did not specify the hours the staff - the vast majority of whom were women - would be asked to work which.Women, particularly those in part-time employment with caring responsibilities, were the worst-affected by the bank's conduct, the LTU added, explaining that the proportion of women who did not sign was 78%, while 55% of those who did not sign were part-time employees compared to 20% of full-time staff.The union said that those who refused to sign the contract were denied annual pay increases in 2011 and were awarded partial ones in 2012.Among the 10,000 due to receive payments, which are thought to average around £500 each, 2,000 are employed by TSB, the high street bank which is 50% owned by Lloyds.Brown added that the bank was fully aware of the implications that asking staff to sign the contracts would have on its female employees."Despite knowing the impact of its policy on relatively low-paid women, the group went ahead anyway, hoping that its discriminatory actions wouldn't be challenged," the LTU's general secretary said."Well, they were challenged and the bank has now had to pay out millions in compensation to low-paid women the length and breadth of the country."Lloyds said it was making the payment following a decision by an employment tribunal in a case brought by three female staff 12 months ago."While the tribunal decision applied only to three colleagues, we have decided to review the pay of all current colleagues who did not originally sign our harmonised terms and conditions in 2010," Lloyds said in a statement."Where this shows an individual would have been entitled to a pay increase in 2011 and 2012, we will make the appropriate adjustment to pay and pensionable pay."