Email Jonathan Russell: tell him to treat us fairly in the next pay negotiations

We have recently outlined the importance that we remind our VOA Chief Executive Jonathan Russell to treat us fairly in the next pay negotiations.

Now is the time to act. Please sign and send our email below to the Chief to show how important it is that we all get a fair deal for all our hard work and loyalty to the agency.

We have pre-prepared an email, but you can edit and add your own perspective if you’d like. Once you're happy with the email, hit send and we'll deliver it to Jonathan Russell's inbox.

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Dear Jonathan 
I am a member of the Prospect Trade Union. Prospect members voted to reject the 2023 VOA pay offer, as you know. 
I am writing to you now to reinforce the message that the 2023 pay offer was unacceptable to Prospect members. 
It was unfair of VOA to use the highest annual pay remit figure we have seen in the Civil Service for many years in the second year of a cost-of-living crisis to make structural changes to the pay grades, disproportionately benefiting one grade at the expense of others. 
It was clear that the Cabinet Office Guidance set the 4.5% remit figure to reflect the continuing elevated level of inflation. 0.5% was allowed in addition to this, specifically for ‘the lowest paid’. Following this guidance, every other government employer delivered 2023 pay awards where all staff received an underpinning award of at least 4.5% (by any means). In contrast, VOA used only 2% as an underpinning figure. The VOA did not even offer non-consolidated payments to make up the increases to 4.5%, the sign-posted underpinning figure. 
The result of this choice, being freely made by VOA, was to unnecessarily disadvantage 45% of your staff. Of the higher grades, only HEO and SEO-V grades at the minimum/near the bottom of the scale received the full 4.5%. As most grades have staff at or near the max this meant they did not receive the full 4.5%. Indeed, many of higher grades were restricted to as low as 2.55%, well below inflationary pressures and other civil servants. The effect being a considerable pay cut for many that followed the many below-inflation awards of previous years. 
All VOA staff have delivered consistently for the Agency over the last two years, while struggling with unprecedented increases in our basic living costs – mortgages, food, fuel, clothing. We all deserved at least 4.5% in 2023, as even this did not reflect the actual pain of cost-of-living we were suffering. 
I am calling on you as the leader of the Agency to distribute pay fairly to all staff, (using business cases to address structural issues), and to redress the enduring damage to the incomes of those who did not receive 4.5% in 2023.

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