Growing number of businesses handing staff cash to deal with rising household bills
More firms are making one-off cost of living payments with Sisk saying that nearly 1,500 staff across the UK and Ireland will be handed close to £1,000 in their next pay packets.
The firm said its 620 staff in the UK will be given £900 while the 830 working in Ireland will be handed €1,000.
A Sisk spokesperson said the payments, which amount to £1.3m, would be made to all staff regardless of what salary they are on.
The firm also said that Christmas vouchers this year worth €500 in Ireland and £400 in the UK will be issued in November.
Sisk chief executive Paul Brown said: “We are very aware of the issue with the cost of living and as a board, we have reviewed a variety of options. We hope these two initiatives can help ease the burden in the coming months.”
And east London housing association Poplar Harca, which according to its 2021 annual report had 331 staff, is giving all its staff a £1,500 one-off payment.
A company spokesperson said this would be made in three installments of £500 over the coming winter.
Meanwhile, one major contractor, who asked not to be named, said: “We have looked at cost of living increases for our average employees. We increased all salaries to absorb the additional 1.5% NI rise [which will be reversed in November] which we will not take back. That will give our employees an average of £1,200 more a year. We will also be taking exceptional cost of living increases into pay reviews this year.”
Other firms to make one-off payments include Keltbray which is handing more than 1,100 of its near 1,700 staff a £1,000 payment this autumn. And Galliford Try is giving around 1,800 staff – more than half the firm’s 3,300 employees – a one-off £750 payment.
Over the summer Barratt said it was handing all staff below senior management level a £1,000 payment that was being made in six instalments by the end of the year.
And in August, Taylor Wimpey said it was making a £1,000 payment “for employees receiving an annual salary of up to £70,000”.
Additional reporting Daniel Gayne
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