The 2024 group Impact Award was presented to the Fast Stream section for their hard-fought campaign to secure a pay rise for members worth up to 22.5%, following a successfully won industrial action ballot. 

One of those receiving the award was member Andrea Anderson. Discussing the background to the section’s work on pay, Andrea said:

“I joined the FDA as soon as I started on the Fast Stream, but did not get involved in the committee until my third year, when I became co-convenor at a time where we were working to address years of stagnating Fast Stream pay. Whilst steps had been made in introducing spot rate uplifts for each year of the scheme, we were hearing increasingly of financial difficulties faced by members. In the face of increasing cost of living pressures compounding the issue of years of Fast Stream pay stagnation, with no real solutions offered we took the difficult but important step to ballot for industrial action.”

Andrea outlined the processes that went into ultimately securing the deal for members:

“The entire committee worked tirelessly to promote the strike ballot which took place over the Christmas period when many Fast Streamers would be going home for Christmas, and with the added challenges of a postal strike!”

The hard work paid off, and from a turnout of 60%, 80% of members voted for strike action:

“This result spurred FSET (the Fast Stream and Emerging Talent team, the Fast Stream employer) into resuming talks and committing to submit a pay flex business case, and whilst this was ongoing we agreed not to strike, with the knowledge that if there was a further breakdown of talks we held a mandate for strike action.

“Fortunately, we did not have to ask members to take strike action, the resulting pay flex business case secured us increases to spot rates in all years, and significantly, the introduction of a London allowance, recognising that 70% of Fast Streamers are based in London. The turnout from members to our pay town halls where we explained the deal was exceptionally high, and showed that, despite the frustration often felt at the pace of the negotiations, members continued to feel strongly about the issue.”

The hard work the committee put into securing the deal paid off, and had a significant impact across the Fast Stream:

“We heard from members that this pay deal allowed them to remain on Fast Stream and whilst there is more work to be done in the future, this important result has shown that Fast Streamers will not accept significantly lower pay for carrying out the same work as our colleagues on the promise of future increases at the end of the scheme.”

Discussing what receiving the award meant to the section, Andrea said:

“Winning the impact award has been one of the highlights of my time on Fast Stream and is something I am immensely proud of as it is a testament to the hard work that the committee put in, and whilst we won it this year, it is an achievement shared with past committees too, as without the work they put in we would not have been able to do this.”