Thousands of workers at Rolls-Royce in Filton are set to receive an extra £2,000 to help with the soaring cost of food, energy and petrol prices. The money will be handed to junior managers and shop floor workers, it is understood.
A total of 14,000 staff at the aerospace giant's UK plants in South Gloucestershire and Derby will receive the payment, according to Sky News. Around 11,000 UK staff will also be given a 4% pay rise backdated to March.
The cash lump sum will be given to 3,000 workers in August, while another 11,000 union workers will receive the money once Unite approves the payment.
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The move is expected to cost Rolls-Royce £28m, while the backdated pay rise will take the aggregate cost to more than £40m.
The announcement by Rolls-Royce comes after Lloyds Banking Group, which also employs a large workforce of people in Bristol, said it would give its staff an extra £1,000 to help with the cost of living crisis.
Inflation - the rate at which prices rise - hit nine per cent in April as official figures showed how much prices are increasing. People across Bristol are being hit hard by the cost of living crisis, with food, fuel, energy, housing and transport costs rocketing upwards, and wages not keeping pace.
In May, Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East said he was confident the company had a “sustainable future”. The company has cut nearly 9,000 jobs from its global workforce since the pandemic hit in 2020.
Mr East, who is stepping down from the aerospace firm later this year, said: “As a result of the actions we have taken, we have made significant progress on the path to recovery from the impact of Covid-19 and are emerging as a better balanced and more resilient business."
Rolls-Royce swung back into the black in February, with profits of £124m - up from a £3.1bn loss a year earlier. The company's next scheduled trading update is on August 4, 2022, when the business will publish its half-year results.
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