LWT pay settlement

LWT members have voted by 79% to accept an improved pay package and settle the long running dispute at the company.

LWT (London Weekend Television) Branch will stop industrial action on 14 November following a ballot to accept an improved package from management to resolve both this and last year's pay disputes.

The improved package, with a 3.6% salary increase for 1999, was arrived at following talks at ACAS in September and extended industrial action at LWT which included refusing to accept turns of duty with less than 12 hour breaks.

There is also a guaranteed 2.5% increase from 1 January 2000, subject to a minimum increase of £450, or RPI plus 0.5% to be used if inflation is greater than 2%.

The key improvements in the package which were won by union negotiators were an increase in London Weighting worth £700 in total over 1999/99/2000, and the reinstatement of "IC4" payments for unsocial working. The company originally wanted to cut these from 16% of salary to 12%, but the revised package maintains them at their current level, and includes a new provision for the payments to be consolidated in basic pay for calculation of salary-related pensions.

LWT is the UK ITV (Channel 3) weekend contractor company for London and the South East, and is owned by the Granada Media Group (GMG).

The settlement at LWT follows similar agreements at Granada Television and Yorkshire & Tyne Tees Television, also part of the GMG holding company.