JCB staff have accepted a new pay deal

JCB shop floor employees have voted to accept a 2.2% pay rise for 2017 as part of a newly agreed three-year wage deal. 

The agreement on pay was reached following a vote by GMB members and will see around 3,200 shop floor employees receive the increase from January 1, 2017. The rise is linked to November's Retail Price Index (RPI) announced last week.

Increases in 2018 and 2019 will also be linked to those years' respective November RPI figures. 

The latest deal will follow the expiry on December 31 of the previous three-year pay deal agreed in 2013.

The new deal covers employees at JCB's plants in Rocester, Uttoxeter, Cheadle, Rugeley, Wrexham and Foston, Derbyshire. 

Chief executive officer Graeme Macdonald is pleased an agreement has been reached on a long-term pay deal for JCB's UK shop floor employees. "It gives us the stability we need to plan for 2017 and beyond as we seek to grow the business in the next few years," he adds. 

GMB works convenor Gordon Richardson says the past year "has been a year of steady growth tinged with a modicum of uncertainty. Hopefully, 2017 onwards will see increases in the volume of machines manufactured, generating more job security for GMB members." 

GMB is a general trade union which has more than 631,000 members in the United Kingdom.