Barclays pay offer cuts sick leave

BARCLAYS Bank angered staff unions yesterday when it unveiled cuts in sick leave conditions as part of its 1.5 per cent pay offer for 1993, writes John Willcock.

Rob MacGregor, Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (Bifu) assistant secretary, said: 'The (pay) offer is derisory and Barclays still want to make the sick help pay for it. With all the cuts in banking, stress on staff is going up - yet the employer doesn't want to pay for the consequences.'

Barclays privately insists that the offer of an extra pounds 120 to pounds 240 for its 65,500 UK clerical staff, which it says is 'final', is more generous than those of Lloyds or National Westminster, both of which have announced various forms of pay freeze for 1993.

Barclays staff with less than two years service will have paid sick leave cut from two months a year to two weeks. Only the 20,000 staff with over 12 years' service will retain their old arrangements.

A Barclays spokeswoman said yesterday that the bank had left paid sick leave unchanged for a decade. 'In that time the Government has reduced the amount of sick pay that can be claimed back by the bank from the Department of Social Security from 100 per cent to 80 per cent', she said.