Update to the Christmas Working payment issue

For those interested, members of Amey's and Colas paybill's were in Bicester to answer the queries of staff on payments for Christmas working. Though it was a week later than originally planned due to bad weather. They were available for most of the day, not everyone who had questions on the subject of Christmas working or other queries relating to pay were able to attend. Some staff were unfortunately on nights.

Anyway, on the principal issue on payments for working over the Xmas period. The few Amey payslip's I have personally seen from Amey staff appear to show that they have been paid correctly, I think much of the concern for them stemmed from a difficulty in reading the Amey payslips in the first place, they are not exactly what you would call crystal. And secondly, they became concerned when their colleagues from Colas starting kicking off shortly after Christmas about the payments. So on the face of it, for Amey staff it appears not to be an issue, merely the difficulty in deciphering their payslips and the reaction of their Colas colleagues combined to make them assume the worse.

As for the Colas staff, it would seem as there is still to be an issue, whether it can be resolved by further clarification and discussion remains to be seen. I haven't spoken with my esteemed colleague Mr Berry on the subject to find out what his perception on the Colas side was, but there would seem to be enough feedback from other Colas members to indicate that some question remain in this area.

So on the whole, the visit from paybills has been a partial success at least, it put the minds of some to rest over the matter, which is better than the situation was before it happened.

A one Cheryl Smith from HR was key mover in making it happen, she was appointed to deal with issues concerning the joint venture. As such, she has a foot in each camp so to speak, which in itself is no easy task. She's not the first to tackle the task of dealing with issues concerning the joint venture, but she appears to be the first to make some headway in the area whereas some of her predecessor's simple bulked at the prospect. For those that don't know her role in the matter, I would like to say thank you on their behalf.

Bob Farley