By a car worker ROVER car workers are balloting on October 24 on a pay deal which has ominous strings attached.
Union officials, who are recommending the deal, claim it is worth 10.7%; management claim it is worth 7.8%, and even the Morning Star has represented it as busting the pay freeze. The reality is somewhat different.
The wage offer is for 3.7% the first year and 4% for the second year. But the extra money which adds up to the 10.7% the union claims comes from acceptance of a new three-tier integrated (staff and manual) grading structure.
Management see this as an essential step to getting "personal assessments" into the wage structure.
Alongside this the company is going to expect workers to be more flexible, doing any work within their grade. For the lowest grade this can include many types of manual and clerical work.
The new formula creates divisions in the workforce, pushing some workers closer to management and weakening trade unionism.