• The pay review budget has been negotiated between AXA and Unite
• This statement applies to all AXA UK employees other than AXA Health or AXA – Global Healthcare
• A 1.5% pay review budget has been offered
• Individual pay increases will vary based on performance and position in pay range 
• Unite balloting will take place from 8th-19th February

This statement tells you the overall pay review budget (how much AXA has to spend on pay increases) and framework (how AXA will spend it) for 2021. This is negotiated between AXA and Unite for all Associate to Professional band employees in AXA UK, other than AXA Health or AXA – Global Healthcare.

Overall budget

This year’s talks have concluded with an offer of a 1.5% total pay review budget for employees in Associate to Professional bands. The same budget will apply to the Senior Professional to Senior Leader bands. Whilst the overall budget will be shared across all eligible employees, individual increases will vary based on the circumstances set out below. The same 1.5% budget will apply in AXA Health and AXA – Global Healthcare. Any pay increases will take effect from 1 April 2021. 

Associate to Senior Associate Pay Approach

Though the 2021 pay review budget (the amount available to spend) is 1.5%, actual pay awards for individuals will vary according to two factors – 2020 performance rating and position in pay range. This means that the budget will be geared more towards those with higher individual performance and those positioned at the low end of the pay range, following the matrix below.

Individual outcomes will be formally communicated to employees in March. Further information about how pay is distributed using the matrix (including how to calculate your position in range) can be found on the My Pay page on ONE.

Professional to Senior Leader Pay Approach

Senior managers who are responsible for pay decisions for the pay review process (also known as Pool Heads) will have full discretion to set pay awards within the overall budget for employees in Professional to Senior Leader bands. These decisions are made in the context of a range factors including individual performance, the external market and comparable pay between peers. Outcomes are reviewed centrally to ensure fairness and we have reviewed these checks and balances this year (including guidance given to Pool Heads) in order to ensure that they continue to lead to good outcomes for employees. 

Other adjustments to Pay Ranges

AXA UK will increase minimum salaries in the pay ranges in line with the Real Living Wage for National and London (£17,290 and £19,747, respectively, for a 35-hour FTE contract). The latest pay ranges are available on ONE and are effective 1 April 2021. There’s more information on the pay review process on the My Pay & Benefits pages on ONE. 

Next steps

Unite will ballot its members on this offer, with the ballot taking place between the 8th and 19th February.

Please speak to your line manager or Unite representative if you have any questions.

Other AXA entities based in the UK will have their own pay arrangements.

 Claudio Gienal                                                  Dominic Hook

Group Chief Executive                                    National Officer

AXA UK & Ireland                                              Unite the Union

Click here to read the latest Unite in AXA newsletter detailing the 2021 Pay Claim we have presented to the company. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Last night the Government announced that it would be closing schools as part of the national lockdown, contradicting its position just 24 hours earlier and causing major problems for many parents.

Last year, to help parents, AXA extended its provision of paid emergency leave from five days to twenty which along with the ability to flex working patterns and holiday allowed many to cope with the circumstances they found themselves in.

Whilst the company has announced that the use of these twenty days can now be extended to April 2021, it is likely that most employees who have needed to use these days have probably used all of them in the first two lockdowns.

Most employees with childcare responsibilities in AXA will be able to manage their situation through working flexibly hours, taking holiday and sharing responsibilities with partners, although we appreciate that it can be difficult and stressful.

However there is a group of employees with younger children who in customer facing roles who cannot work flexibly and have no partner to share looking after their child(ren), and these need support beyond what the company is currently offering.

The Government Job Retention Scheme allows these employees to be furloughed and receive (at least) 80% of their salary, but the company has decided that it will not use the scheme, so this option which would address the problem is not available.

We have asked AXA to urgently review its policy to help this group of employees and solve a problem it has largely created itself by not utilising the scheme for the small number of employees who need the help it would provide.

If you have childcare responsibilities and have problems balancing them with your work in the first instance you should speak with your manager, but if you get no help there, please contact your local Unite in AXA rep for help.

The 2021 Unite in AXA pay survey can be accessed here.

Everyone is finding working from home challenging and sometimes quite stressful, even more so if you are also trying to juggle the demands of small children no longer at school or in nursery/child minding.

By and large we think that most employees and managers are considerate of the additional pressures their colleagues with children are facing at present, but unfortunately we have been approached by some members about negative comments being said or posted about them on social media when childcare needs impacts their ability to do their job, especially those whose role involves customer-centric shifts.

To be clear this is unacceptable and is bullying. We have raised this issue with HR and they agree it is unacceptable. If you find colleagues are making negative comments about your issues balancing childcare responsibilities and work, you should speak to your manager. If they do not resolve the issue speak to your local Unite rep and we will help address the bullying.

As have said previously AXA’s response to the Covid-19 crisis and speed at which it managed to get us all working from home with new laptops was praiseworthy, reducing the risk of infection to staff in as timely a manner as possible. 

Unfortunately since then, the follow up to provide additional equipment to make working from home easier and safer has been less speedy. Many members have contacted us saying how their working arrangements at home are unsatisfactory due to the lack of facilities the have. Employees have reported to us being hunched over laptops sat of coffee tables, sat in an armchair all day, using an ironing board as a desk and even working from their bed! Others have reported eye strain issues with only having a small laptop screen when normally they use two monitors.

Not only does this negatively impact the abilities of us to do the work we are trying to do, it also has a negative impact on our health with the increased risk of back problems and eyesight to name just two.

It is now two weeks since AXA told employees it was looking into this but nothing much appears to have been done and we have told the company that it must prioritise the issue of lack of suitable desks, chairs, screens, keyboards, mouse etc for employees working from home, and they need to do this in the same speedy manner as they rolled out laptops.

Additionally we have raised the issue were staff have attempted to resolve issues of kit their managers have not by dipping into their own pocket to by a mouse or other equipment just so they can do their job more efficiently. A multi-national company the size of AXA should not expect its employees to buy the equipment neeeded to do the job they are employed to and we fully expect AXA to recompense any reasonable purchases.

A number of members have contacted us about the various internet outages across the country, notably for Virgin Media, BT and Sky customers and the impact on them working from home.

We have spoken to HR about this and they have confirmed that it should be treated the same as if you were working in the office and there was an internet or other failure, and staff are not expected to make the time lost suffered by an outage or take holiday.

A number of members have approached us with concerns around the Cornonavirus outbreak and its implications from a work point of view. The subject is an evolving one and it is important to avoid speculation and sharing of erroneous information.

AXA UK has a ‘Coronavirus Hub’ with frequently updated FAQ that can be accessed via the company intranet here.

The NHS page with advice and common questions can be found here.

The Government page with travel information and guidance can be found here.

We are in ongoing consultation with the company and if you cannot find the answer to an immediate issue from the above, please speak to your local union rep and we will raise with the appropriate people at AXA.

We would ask though to try and avoid speculative what if questions (eg. what if schools close; something the Government views as unlikely at present). If these matters do become likely we will engage with the company to address them, but priority must be given to more immediate issues.

Based on a 73% return of ballot papers issued, the result of the 2020 pay ballot is as follows:

For: 79%
Against: 20%
Spoilt: 1%

We have communicated this to the company…

Thank you to everyone who voted and the local workplace reps for the hard work they put in running the ballot.

Following a recent legal ruling* that companies should take regular overtime into account for the purposes of employees holiday, Unite in AXA has been negotiating with the company on how to implement the ruling within AXA UK.

Rather than calculate each individual employee’s entitlement when they take holiday, with all the administrative complexity that would cause and debate about exactly what regular overtime was, Unite suggested to AXA that it apply a flat increase to the overtime rates, which whilst a slightly more expensive option as it goes beyond the legal ruling, was a simpler and less bureaucratic approach, and easier to understand and implement.

After some negotiation we are pleased to advise AXA agreed with our suggestion and with effect from 1st January 2020, all overtime rates in AXA UK have been increased by 5.5%, regardless of whether the overtime worked in ‘regular’ or not, to ensure AXA complies with the new ruling.

* The legal situation in Northern Ireland is still under review and we are waiting on the resolution of that to see what we can do for overtime rates there.