FCA staff vote on strike action amid pay concerns
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) staff are voting on strike action amid concerns about pay and bonus cuts.
It comes amid anger towards new chief executive Nikhil Rathi’s (pictured) transformation plans for the City watchdog, which Unite members warn will create a “bargain basement” regulator.
However, the changes are unlikely to affect the FCA’s leadership team as most are new in post, appointed by Rathi, Unite says.
Unite members have begun voting in an indicative ballot for strike action that closes next Monday.
“The ballot will deliver a clear sense just how dire workforce morale and employee confidence is within the FCA leadership,” Dominic Hook, national officer for Unite, said.
“Management at the FCA are attempting to implement a program of pay cuts, which has come after two years in which the staff at the FCA have worked gruelling hours to provide financial protection against Covid for borrowers, investors, small businesses and people with mortgages.
“Unite has made it clear that if introduced these cuts will make it even less likely that the FCA will be able to deliver this high standard of public service in the future.”
Unite said experienced employees have been quitting the regulator in droves, with more expected to follow after a recent Unite survey found 89.8 per cent of staff described their morale as “low” or “very low.”
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