ITV staff have voted in favour of a ballot for strike action after rejecting a “mean” annual pay rise offer of 2%.
Broadcasting unions representing ITV staff said that it was a “resounding yes vote” for strike action that “must be taken seriously by ITV management”.
In a high turn out, 85% of National Union of Journalists’ members at the broadcaster voted in favour of a strike ballot, as did 86% of those affiliated with Bectu and 78% of Unite’s ITV membership.
“This resounding ‘yes’ vote to move to a strike ballot, unless the pay offer is improved, must be taken seriously by the ITV management,” said Sue Harris, national broadcasting officer at the NUJ. “All three unions are standing shoulder to shoulder and are prepared to act unless their members get the increase they deserve.”
The unions argue that ITV performed strongly last year – pre-tax profits surged 30% to £435m and revenues grew a healthy 8% to £2.7bn – with the business performing well enough for chief executive Adam Crozier to take home £8.4m.
“We are now prepared to go back to the negotiating table and hope the management will see sense and put a proper, decent offer forward and be as generous as they were with the deal given to ITV executives,” said Harris.
The unions said that the staff were originally offered a rise of 1.25%, and that members would be prepared to consider a 2.75% rise offer.
An ITV spokesman said:
“We believe that the offer we have made is a fair one, reflecting our current circumstances and is consistent with recent pay awards agreed across the media sector and in UK private sector business. We are obviously disappointed that the joint unions plan to take this course of action, however we are happy to keep lines of communication open”.
He added that the company is doing well but that there remains a tight focus on costs to balance the need to continue to “to invest in growing the business, people and programming.”
