A SCOTTISH family firm is spending more than £1 million to help its entire workforce cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
Allied Vehicles Group, based in Possilpark in north Glasgow, is giving each of its almost 600 staff members a pay rise – a gesture that will cost the firm £1.25m.
Pay will rise on a scale, meaning those who have lower pay will receive more than those higher paid.
Managing director Peter Facenna said the move was a major investment in the company’s staff after the pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the resulting rampant inflation.
He said: “This is a massive vote of confidence in all our staff who have shown tremendous mettle through the difficulties of the past couple of years. The triple whammy of Brexit, Covid-19, and the war Ukraine was bad enough, but the knock-on effects, including a shortage of new vehicles, rising energy costs, and rampant, double-digit inflation have hit everyone really hard.
“We were unable to source all the vehicles we needed to produce our specialised wheelchair-accessible models and were losing money at the start of our financial year because of the shortage.
“Our people stayed with us throughout, but like everyone else, they and their families were suffering through rising energy costs and overall inflation.”
Every employee will receive a pay rise this month, with the lowest paid seeing an increase of 10%, and higher paid staff 5%. Around two-thirds of the workforce will be given a minimum increase of 7.69%, and 43% of the workforce will see a rise of between 9% and 10%.
Facenna continued: “We have managed to source some vehicles to get our vehicle manufacturing going again, so we decided we had to do something to help our loyal workforce.
“We came up with a sliding scale weighted towards lower paid staff, to ensure that everyone gets a rise.
“Every single person will receive a pay increase this month.
“The pay rise isn’t simply a one-off. It’s an ongoing commitment from the company that will impact on our wage bill going forward, but if we can help our people, we feel it’s well worth it”.
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