UK financial watchdog staff edge closer to strike over pay cuts

theguardian.com:

Staff at the UK’s financial watchdog are edging closer to a strike over pay cuts that unions say will turn the Financial Conduct Authority into a “bargain-basement” regulator.

Members of Unite will vote in a ballot over whether to take industrial action against the FCA, after management allegedly refused to negotiate with the workforce on a “programme of severe cost-cutting”.

Workers are said to be unhappy about a transformation plan ushered in by the FCA’s new chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, that involves abolishing bonuses widely considered to be part of basic pay, as well as “unfair” changes to the staff appraisal system, plans to cut staff pension rights and lower pay for non-London staff.

Unite – which is not formally recognised by the FCA as its staff union – said the plans had already resulted in a plunge in morale and an exodus of experienced staff that could exacerbate problems at the FCA.

“Management at the FCA are attempting to implement a programme of pay cuts, which has come after two years in which the staff at the FCA have worked gruelling hours to provide financial protection against Covid for borrowers, investors, small businesses and people with mortgages,” the Unite national officer Dominic Hook said. “Unite has made it clear that if introduced, these cuts will make it even less likely that the FCA will be able to deliver this high standard of public service in the future.”

The watchdog was already under fire