Rolls-Royce car plant workers win pay deal worth up to 17.6%

Workers at Rolls-Royce’s UK car factory have won a pay deal worth up to 17.6 per cent, their largest-ever, the Unite union said, as the country faces a wave of strikes over the cost of living crisis.

The deal, which is made up of a 10 per cent salary increase and a £2,000 one-off payment, will apply to all 1,200 workers at the Goodwood plant in the south of England, the only site where Rolls-Royces are built.

“This is a top-notch pay deal for the Rolls-Royce workforce,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. “For years the workers had been underpaid and undervalued but that’s changing”.

For the pay grades represented by Unite at the plant, the increase would be worth between 14.8 per cent and 17.6 per cent of their salary. The one-year deal starts in January.

The settlement came after “intensive negotiations” with the BMW-owned luxury carmaker and more than 80 per cent of the factory’s workers had voted in the ballot, the union said.

A steep rise in the cost of living is prompting workers across the private and public sectors to seek pay rises. Nurses, transport workers and ambulance drivers are among those taking industrial action to push for more money as households are hit with higher energy, food and mortgage bills.

Wage growth in the private sector has accelerated since the summer. In November BT agreed to hand staff pay rises of between 6 per cent and 16 per cent after 40,000 employees went out on strike.

The agreement at Rolls-Royce comes as the luxury carmaker plans to sell its first fully electric vehicle in a shift away from combustion engines. The carmaker last year sold a record 5,586 vehicles, up 49 per cent from the previous year.

The 116-year-old manufacturer has largely avoided the supply chain squeeze on semiconductors that has beset the rest of the car industry, in part because it makes fewer cars than its peers.

Rolls-Royce said on Friday that it was “pleased” about the deal, adding that “negotiations were cordial and constructive throughout”.