LRD guides and handbook April 2021

Negotiating the new homeworking landscape - a guide for union reps

Chapter 2

Loss of location top-up allowance

[ch 2: page 13]

Unions will be wary of news from the US that social media giants Facebook and Twitter have said there will be pay cuts for workers who move away from the expensive areas where the companies are based because they can now remote work.

In the UK, employees based in the most expensive parts of the country have sometimes been awarded an additional allowance, such as the London Weighting allowance. Union advice must be sought if the employer seeks to put forward new contract terms that withdraw a location top-up allowance on the grounds that employees are now homeworking. Unions point out that employers make considerable savings when employees move to home working (see Chapter 7).