Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter concerning the company’s 2022 pay offer. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

• This statement applies to all AXA UK employees other than AXA Health or AXA Global Healthcare

• The 2022 pay budget has been negotiated by AXA and Unite

• A 4.5% pay review budget increase has been offered for the bargaining group,  Associates to Professionals

• 3% will be provided to Senior Professionals to Senior Leaders

• Individual pay increases will vary based on performance and position in pay range, and will be effective 1 April 2022

• Unite members will go to ballot (i.e. vote on the offer) between 8-17 February

Each year we review the pay budget (how much AXA has to spend on pay increases) and how it is distributed out to employees. These elements are negotiated between AXA and Unite for all AXA UK employees at Associate to Professional grades, except for those in AXA Health and AXA Global Health. 

AXA Health and AXA Global Healthcare have also released their own pay statements today and other AXA entities based in the UK will have their own pay arrangements.

Overall budgets

This year, the negotiation has concluded with an offer of a 4.5% overall pay budget increase for employees across the Associate to Professional grades. Separately, a budget increase of 3% will apply to the Senior Professional to Senior Leader grades. 

Why is AXA proposing a higher budget for our Associate to Professional grades compared to Senior Professional and Senior Leader grades?

This is because the main purpose of pay review for AXA is to keep pay rates competitive in the market, and careful external research and benchmarking has shown that in the Associate to Professional grades AXA needs to invest more to be competitive. We’re also aware that cost of living has been rising significantly over recent months and often this disproportionately affects people at these levels.

Whilst the overall budgets will be shared across all eligible employees, individual increases will vary based on the factors set out below. 

How AXA distributes pay awards – matrix vs. discretionary approaches

​AXA distributes pay awards based on either a matrix or discretionary approach according to employee grade. Both approaches are described further below but first this table shows which approach and proposed pay budget value applies to each employee grade

Matrix pay distribution approach (Associate and Senior Associate)

The total 2022 pay budget increase (the amount available to spend) for this group is 4.5%, however the actual pay award for each individual will be influenced by their performance rating and the position of their salary in the pay range. Following the matrix below, this means that larger awards will be provided to those with a higher performance rating and those positioned at the low end of the pay range.

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.

Discretionary pay approach – Professional, Senior Professional, Leader & Senior Leader

Managers who are responsible for making pay decisions during the pay review process (also known as Pool Heads) will use their discretion to provide pay awards for employees in Professional to Senior Leader grades, keeping within the overall budgets.

A range of factors are considered when making a decision on an individual’s pay including their performance, the external market and comparison to peers. Outcomes are reviewed centrally to ensure fairness. The process for these checks and the guidance provided to Pool Heads ahead of pay review are reconsidered each year to ensure that they continue to be fit for purpose and lead to appropriate pay outcomes for employees.

Adjustments to pay ranges

Minimum salaries in the UK pay ranges will be increased in line with the new Real Living Wage for National and London (£18,018 and £20,111, respectively, for a 35-hour FTE contract). Where necessary, these adjustments are being made in addition to the pay budgets described above. 

Separately, the pay ranges will be assessed to determine whether further upward adjustments are required, keeping the external market in mind. 

The revised 2022 pay ranges will be available in the Manager area on ONE towards the end of February and will be effective 1 April 2022. 

Next steps

Unite members will go to ballot on this offer between the 8 and 17 February. The final pay budget won’t be confirmed until the results of the ballot are known.

Individual pay outcomes will be formally communicated to employees in March and any pay increases will take effect from 1 April 2022.

There is more information on the pay review process on the My Pay page on ONE. Please speak to your line manager or Unite representative if you have any questions.

Claudio Gienal                                               Dominic Hook

Group Chief Executive                                   National Officer

AXA UK & Ireland                                           Unite the Union

Yesterday AXA Insurance issued instructions to customer facing staff around how to respond to anyone who asks them about fox hunting either by email or voice. Unfortunately there was no context to this and a certain ambiguity around the wording required to be used.

Staff are advised to say that “we do not provide insurance to the hunting industry, this includes trail hunting and legal services for hunts”. This is perfectly correctly for AXA Insurance here in the UK. Historically the company did provide some legal insurance in this area but no longer does.

We have discussed with the company at UK and international level the ethics around insuring legal, but publicly unpopular risks, and are pleased to see AXA Insurance no longer underwriting risks like this. Globally AXA has an ethical investment policy, we are pushing for an ethical insurance one as well to help protect the brand which in turn protects jobs.

Unfortunately however it appears AXA as a whole globally does provide insurance for hunting. AXA XL (one of the groups international operations with its head office in the United States) does underwrite policies for a variety of hunting activities. Whilst this is nothing to do with AXA Insurance here in the UK, the distinction between AXA XL run from the US and AXA Insurance run from London are no doubt irrelevant to those campaigning about fox hunting and similar activities. AXA after all is AXA.

We intend to discuss the AXA XL issue further in the appropriate forum with Group management, but would urge members to follow the instructions issued yesterday and if the caller is unhappy with the response, or abusive, that they refer the matter to their line manager to deal with. We would also like members to let your local union rep know so we can see what additional action can be taken by AXA Insurance if required to make the messaging clearer to upset individuals and also protect our members.

Following the exit of the Lloyds Banking Group scheme in November 2021, AXA Insurance have announced their intentions to reduce the number of staff employed within the travel insurance area of the business. This is due to a decrease in the number of staff required to support the function, as AXA UK plans to leave the travel insurance market.

Whilst many have been able to seek alternative redeployment within AXA, there will still be the loss of 73 jobs.

Unite in AXA are hosting a surgery on Friday for members impacted, between 12 and 1:30pm. Please contact one of your reps, who can send you the details. If you require any help or support, a list of your reps can be found here.

Unite in AXA have issued a newsletter detailing the 2022 Pay Claim we have presented to the company today. Please leave your feedback below or talk to your local union rep.

The AXA European Works Council, with union representatives from AXA operations in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain and the UK is being held in Paris.

The UK delegates are asking Group President Thomas Burberl questions on employee burn-out, surveillance of employees working from home and ethical insurance underwriting.

Following the announcement by the Government over the weekend re-introducing some of the Covid-19 protocols from earlier in the year, namely the use of masks in shops and on public transport, Unite in AXA have called on the company to reinstate some of its own.

Whilst the Government has not mandated the wearing of masks in offices it is somewhat incongruous that an employee has to wear a mask to get to work but has no requirement to do so when in work. We have asked AXA to reinstate the rule that when employees get up from their desk, that they should put on a mask to help protect their colleagues.

Also, whilst the requirement to work form home has not been reintroduced yet, we are asking the company to ensure that when staff are required to go in to the office, that there is some valid business reason, and is not just an arbitrary requirement to ensure an employee has been in the office a set number of days, regardless of any need for them to do so.

Hopefully these measures will help in the ingoing battle against Covid and help reduce the spread of the virus in the run up to Xmas.

The 2022 Unite in AXA pay survey can be accessed here

Following Claudio’s email to all staff yesterday evening we have been asked can AXA insist that employees wear a mask in the office after 19^th July “as it is no longer a legal requirement?”

Short answer is yes.

At no point has it actually been a legal requirement in England for staff working in an office to wear a mask. Those legal requirements were restricted to retail and hospitality. 

However AXA UK decided that when staff were away from their desk they should put a mask on to protect other employees. They are perfectly within their rights to do this as they need to make sure they are protecting all workers’ health and safety and wearing a mask protects others.

We appreciate some individuals may be unhappy with this but AXA has legal obligations to protect workers and this is one way they will be doing so in the immediate future. Refusal to comply with company instructions could well result in disciplinary action so please continue to put on your mask if you are in the office and away from your desk.

Since the announcement that AXA had lost the Lloyds contract back in March it has been an extremely worrying time for many members working in that business area. Whilst TUPE job protections exist the ability for the them to be utilised effectively can often be dependent on whether the new employer is geographically local to the existing one. In this case the new company, Allianz, and the jobs, are based in Croydon.

Pre-pandemic unless an individual wished to move to a new town the normal end result would be redundancy if a redeployment could not be found in the existing company they were working for. However the fact that for the last 16 months staff working on the Lloyds contract have successfully managed to do so from home has proven that it is not a pre-requisite that staff need to work in an office (whether that be in Ipswich or Croydon).

This new reality formed the basis of our consultation with AXA and they took this position to Allianz who have re-looked at their original assumptions and agreed that a new way of working is one that they can adopt.

This offers the opportunity for a large number of AXA staff to transfer to Allianz whilst continuing to work mainly from home.

As staff in Travel Claims will now know following the follow up announcement on Monday from management that moving forward will not be straight forward. 

Allianz want to recruit some workers prior to the official handover in November and whilst those jobs will be offered to AXA employees in the affected population in the first instance this does fall outside the remit of TUPE legislation which will cover those who move over in November. 

Additionally there is the run off of the remaining Travel Claims operation which will see that business taken over by AXA Assistance in Redhill or by other companies. TUPE legislation will need to be taken into account as and when this happens.

Additionally there also should be jobs within AXA Insurance available for employees to apply for.

Whilst this is a complicated situation with different phases and staff put into different ‘pods’ dependent on the impact on them of the Lloyds loss, the good news is that a lot of jobs will be preserved (inside and outside of AXA) and we are hopeful that the number of compulsory redundancies now will be very minimal.

We appreciate that the amount of information provided by the company on Monday is daunting and we would urge members looking for clarity or with concerns to speak to the local unions reps in Ipswich who are on hand to help.

Unite will soon be engaging with Allianz directly for consultation and negotiation regarding the terms and conditions of the AXA staff who apply for jobs and start with to Allianz in September and those who will transfer under TUPE in November and we will update you on that once those meetings have concluded.