The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has made a new employment offer to staffers in an effort to resolve a dispute over pay and conditions.
Last month, FCA employees voted in support of industrial action in a non-binding ballet in response to a planned transformation programme being pushed by the watchdog's new boss, Nikhil Rathi.
As it looks to avoid strikes, the FCA has now put together a new package which, it says, will see around 800 of its lowest paid staffers receive average salary increases of £4310 to the minimum of a new pay benchmark. Other salary increases and performance related pay will take overall increases for these employees to an average of around £5,500, says a statement.
Meanwhile, those that meet their performance targets - about 85% of staffers - will receive salary increases of at least five per cent this year and four per cent in 2023. The FCA will also pay those meeting their performance objectives a one-off back-dated cash payment equivalent to four per cent of salary in April.
However, discretionary cash bonuses will be removed for all staff from next year.
Says Rathi: "We believe we have developed a fair, competitive, and sustainable offer that will help us achieve our regulatory objectives, as well as diversity goals, that supports the lowest paid and the strongest performers".
Separately, the watchdog has tapped its former chief people officer William Hague to lead on setting up a new office in Leeds as part of a commitment to expand outside of London that will also see the recruitment of 200 new staff in Edinburgh.