Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter on the play claim we have submitted to the company on behalf of our members in AXA UK. A series of negotiation meetings with management are scheduled for the New Year. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter on your feedback regarding the cost of living crisis in the national pay survey. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter on the national pay survey. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

With over 1500 employees having signed our Working From Home allowance petition, we are very pleased that AXA UK have listened and will be putting a place a £26 a month tax and national insurance free allowance for all hybrid workers (except those in very senior positions) over the winter period backdated to the beginning of October.

Unite in AXA are pleased that AXA has agreed to take this action following our discussions given the pressures hybrid workers are facing on heating and electricity costs this winter.

This does not of course bring an end our discussions with the company on the Cost of Living Crisis and we are still working with them on a number of our suggestions to help staff at this extremely difficult time. Hopefully there will be more good news regarding help for struggling employees in the coming weeks…

The success here does demonstrate the importance of having your voice heard and there are more issues coming up, including the 2023 pay talks, which we will need the opinions of our members in AXA on soon.

If you do not feel you need the allowance and would like to donate it to charity you might consider giving it to the likes of National Energy Action, The Trussell Trust or Fareshare who are helping people struggling with the Cost of Living crisis…

Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter as we start the 2023 pay roundly consulting with our members. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

After representations by Unite in AXA, and other employee representative groups in AXA UK, the company have advised that they “won’t be expanding the scope of the one-off £1k cost of living payment”.

They said that they “recognise that all employees are making difficult decisions about how to save money and juggle their finances, and understand the approach taken own’t solve everyone’s household budget challenges” and that in their opinion “no solution… will be perfect”.  They “feel the package launched was the most sensible balance between the needs of employees, who are more likely to vulnerable vs. protecting the commercial health of the business”.

We are disappointed with this response, given the divisive binary nature of the threshold that upset many members, especially those unfortunate to fall just above the line, as well as the where this line was drawn. We will however continue to campaign for further and ongoing cost of living provision from the company, and do not regard this payment as all we are expecting to see AXA do to support its staff during this increasingly difficult time.

Back in July we made a number of suggestions to AXA of measures they could undertake to help staff during the cost of living crisis; one of these was an expansion of the Season Ticket Loan scheme to cover loans for any purpose to help employees with immediate financial problems.

Obviously we would like people not to be in a position where they need to take out a loan, but Unite in AXA felt that an interest-free option on a similar basis to the 0% interest Season Ticket scheme would help employees facing difficult choices with limited (often high interest) options in the market place.

Unite are pleased to see AXA have agreed to implement this suggestion over the next three months (until a new proposition should be in place). Please speak to your manager if you want more information about how much you can borrow and over what period. We would remind Unite members that the union provides free independent financial advice as part of their membership benefits, more details can be found here.

Over one thousand AXA employees have now signed our petition requesting the company to re-instate the Working From Home allowance for hybrid workers or introduce something similar to help staff facing increased heating and electricity costs this winter.

If you haven’t signed the petition yet please do so HERE – and don’t forget to get your work colleagues to as well, the more signatories the more minded the company to look to do something.

At the start of the pandemic when employees were required to work from home AXA UK awarded all staff a weekly allowance of £6 per week to help with increased utility bills, broadband costs etc. With the impact of the pandemic reduced and the majority of employees switching to a hybrid working contract AXA stopped paying this allowance in June last year.

Since then fuel prices (which drive electricity and heating prices) have increased by 12% in October 2021, 54% in April this year and will increase by a further 27% (and that after Government intervention) next month. Employees on hybrid contracts have endured and continue to face increasing costs to work from home that AXA does not help with.

Whilst employees are having now to pay to work at home with increased electricity usage and heating, AXA UK has been making big savings on its property portfolio, combining office locations (like Gloucester and Teesside) or reducing floor occupation (as in the likes of Birmingham, Bristol and Ipswich). Desk availability is now around 2/3 of the employee population, we cannot all work in the office at the same time. The vast majority of employees are now required to partly work from home and pay for the electricity needed to power their equipment to do their job, and heat the rooms they are working in. 

When you work in the office you are not asked to chip in for the electricity to power your PC or light the office, nor are you asked to contribute towards the cost of keeping the office heated. Why should you have to do this just because you are working in a different location that also happens to be your home?

AXA does pay a home working allowance to a much smaller population to “cover domestic costs like additional utility bills”; those employees designated “non-office based workers”. Whilst some of these do not work near an AXA office, and rarely if ever visit one, a considerable number of them visit AXA offices as regularly as some on hybrid worker contracts.

This inconsistency, along with the cost hybrid workers are facing to work from home (when AXA is making savings from employees doing this) is why we are calling on AXA to re-instate the working from home allowance for hybrid workers, or provide some pro-rata allowance to cover the days employees now work at home rather than the office.

They are reluctant to do this which is why we are asking you, the employees, to sign this petition, and encourage your colleagues to do so to, so management understand the strength of feeling on this issue and re-consider their stance in asking employees to pay to work form home, whilst they make big savings in reduced property costs across the UK.

TO SIGN THE PETITION CLICK HERE