Although the bank has not met our demands of a pay offer that is two percent above inflation based on the RPI we recognized they have moved quite considerably from their initial offer due to union pressure in the give and take process of negotiations. As there are both positives and negatives to the final offer Unite feels it is unable to recommend a position and as part of the democratic process believes rightly the final decision should be left up to the membership to vote as they see fit.

When Lloyds announced there would be no bonus, and upon seeing all other UK banks deciding to pay one, we received a lot of feedback to say that people would have voted differently on that year's pay ballot because of it. This year we felt members would appreciate the complete picture on what their reward package for the year will look like before using their vote.

If the result of the whole ballot is to reject, then the pay rise will be put on hold. Unite will tell the bank the members reject the offer, and we will look to see what further negotiations can achieve. Any further discussions would be on the basis that whatever the outcome is, any pay rise would be backdated.

It means the pay range will be increased by the relevant percentage before the pay rise is applied. Some people will move to a lower pay range because of it and get a higher pay rise as a result.

The bank has subjected both unions to an embargo preventing disclosure of any of the specifics as to how negotiations have progressed. All we can say is that the first offer was a LOT lower than what we ended up with but that shouldn’t matter. What matters is whether you think the current offer is good enough.

It will show the bank a real signal that their workers aren’t as happy as they would maybe think and would be encouragement for them to negotiate further with the unions.

Unite will look to see what action members would be willing to take

It could be a range of things. Negative publicity, demonstrations and even strike action. That said I think all parties would rather a mutual and respectful agreement to be struck.

They are just different ways of measuring inflation. The major difference is RPI includes housing costs such as council tax and mortgage interest payments etc. However, CPI does not include such housing costs. Unite base their pay claim on RPI because it believes when looking at the rise in the cost-of-living housing costs are an important factor to consider in living standards.

Inflation is the rate at which prices are rising - if the cost of a £1 jar of jam rises by 5p, then jam inflation is 5%. Hundreds of goods and services (known as a basket of goods) are compared each month. Some goods and services may go up in price while others go down and this is averaged out to give the inflation figure for a particular month. So for example the current inflation figure of 5.1% for December 2021 means that overall prices have risen by 5.1% compared to December 2020.

If your pay is rising by less than inflation, you will see a fall in the "real" value of your wages, because what you're earning will buy less. We're all affected by rising prices, but if you're on a low income or don't have savings to fall back on, you're likely to feel the impact more keenly.