£1000 cost of living boost for TISE staff

Wednesday 26 October 2022

The International Stock Exchange has spent £35,000 helping its staff through the current rising cost of living crisis.

With 35 staff across Guernsey and Jersey as well as Dublin, each are being given £1000 along with their October salary.

This follows a 3% pay rise all staff were also given earlier this year to help with the rising cost of living across all three jurisdictions.

That rise was awarded in April as people were already feeling the pinch, and how now been followed by what's called a "one-off exceptional payment". The TISE said this £1000 payment is "not in lieu of any other salary or bonus payments and will be subject to standard tax and social security deductions".‌

Cees Vermaas, the Chief Executive Officer of TISE, said the salary uplift and one-off payment reflect the fact that the staff are responsible for the business' success.

“This additional contribution is in recognition of the rising inflation costs and impact upon cost of living that we have seen across all the jurisdictions we operate in over the last few months. Our success truly is founded in our people, and we hope that this demonstrates the value we place on supporting our employees during this difficult and challenging time.”

Pictured: Cees Vermaas, CEO of TISE.

The TISE is the first organisation within Guernsey's finance sector to announce any cost of living measures which are payable to all staff equally.

Within the hospitality sector, Hand Picked Hotels was the first to make such a public gesture. Earlier this month MD Julia Hands confirmed that all staff were receiving a permanent £3 an hour pay rise. That's equivalent to a 30% pay rise for the staff on the lowest pay grade.

Hand Picked Hotels owns the St Pierre Park and Fermain Valley hotels in Guernsey and the Braye Beach Hotel in Alderney. It also owns the Grand and L'Horizon hotels in Jersey. The Group also owns the former Ambassador, Chalet and Ziggurat hotels in Guernsey. 

CEO Julia Hands said her staff deserved the additional pay after their hard work during the covid pandemic which has been quickly followed by huge rises in the cost of living.

“To help our staff through the cost of living crisis we have given each and every employee a pay increase of £3 per hour which is also in recognition of their amazing efforts in working so diligently to welcome back our guests as we reopened when Covid restrictions were lifted."

Mrs Hands also sought to dismiss descriptions of staff within the hospitality industry as 'un-skilled' saying that continued training is also high on the Hand Picked Hotels agenda.

"Alongside the pay rise we will invest even more in training for our people," she said.

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Pictured: Staff at St Pierre Park Hotel, and other Hand Picked Hotels, have been given a £3 an hour pay rise. 

Recent national research has found that two-thirds (64 per cent) of UK businesses have had increasing numbers of employees asking for pay rises.

The research by Applaud, which interviewed 250 decision-makers at small, medium and large sized businesses, found that employees at 67% had recently voiced concerns about a recession while half were also experiencing a higher staff turnover than usual.

Both the TISE and Hand Picked Hotels have made similar provision to large brand names such as Virgin, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Rolls Royce, British Airways, Easyjet, and Morrisons.

They've introduced a variety of measures including one-off payments, varying from £200-£2000 pounds, 20% payrises, or a combination of one-off payments and pay rises.