Row erupts over unpaid agency workers at Rolls-Royce

A firm which supplies payroll services for recruitment agencies has said it will be paying furloughed staff at Rolls-Royce in Derby next week after being accused of acting in “bad faith”.

The Giant was responding to union allegations which said the agency had reneged on a promise to furlough around 300 staff working on Rolls-Royce contracts in Derby and Washington in the north-east. The Unite union said the workers haven’t been paid for a month.

Unite said that Giant had promised on 17 April that the workers would be furloughed under the government job retention scheme (JRS) which means that they would receive at least 80% of their pay.
But Unite said its members had not received a penny in the last month which had left them in “dire financial straits” and that “confusion reigns” with “mixed messages” from the company over the progress or not of the JRS application.

The union estimates that about 270 workers were on the Derby contract and 27 at Washington.

Giant has responded by saying that itself struggled to get clarification from HMRC and the Government over the status of the workers.

A spokesperson for Giant told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We are working hard to support our contingent workforce during these unprecedented times that has posed many challenges to businesses.

“Since the announcement of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, there have been numerous updates to the guidance, and it is unfortunate that there remain some areas of uncertainty as to how the scheme applies to our, and other contingent workforces. It has been our aim, along with the FCSA and APSCo, to seek clarity from both the Government and HMRC to ensure all our workers are treated equally, but unfortunately this has not been forthcoming. In the absence of receiving an update, we have commenced processing furlough claims for March and April ready for payment next week.”

Unite officer with responsibility for Rolls-Royce in Derby Tony Tinley said: “Both ethically and morally, Giant should be accessing all monies available to ensure employees receive pay.2 We urge Giant to do the right thing – otherwise, it is guilty of bad faith, as the agency promised in April that the workers would be furloughed, after work finished for them at the end of March.”

Meanwhile, the company has said it will make £1bn in savings this year. At Rolls-Royce’s AGM later today, Warren East, chief executive will outline a better than expected outcome from its cost-saving programme.

The news comes days after it was reported that the firm will make 8,000 redudancies. East says the firm’s staff will be told of the extent of the job cuts by the end of May.

East will also reveal the firm will only make 250 engines this year – down from 450 – as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the airline industry.