Employees of the Financial Conduct Authority who are members of union Unite on Tuesday voted in favour of industrial action.

The vote follows a dispute with staff after the FCA last month decided to go ahead with a proposal do away with cash bonuses from May. It said its reward structure had not been shown to lead to better regulatory outcomes and had become hard to justify, after two independent reviews that found the FCA had been lacking in its role of protecting consumers.
 

   
At the time, chief executive Nikhil Rathi said he recognised the strength of feeling expressed by many colleagues about the discretionary performance bonus.

“The Board and ExCo considered this carefully but we concluded that the discretionary bonus scheme has not supported the long-term performance aspirations we have for the FCA/PSR,” he said. 

Unite said the ballot closed with over 75% voting for industrial action following a dispute around changes to pay and conditions, while 89.8% support industrial action short of strike action. It is not clear how many FCA employees are Unite members.

The union said that employees of the FCA voting for strike was a historic first. 

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary said: “For the first time ever, the employees at the Financial Conduct Authority have voted for industrial action. They have made it very clear that the proposed changes to staff pay and conditions are completely unacceptable. The FCA management must now address the serious concerns of their employees." 

Alan Scott, Unite officer added that "the continued refusal to recognise an independent trade union further damages the standing" of the FCA.
 
"The management could still avoid the reputational and business damage caused by strike action by meeting with Unite to resolve the dispute," he said. 

Following the ballot result Unite contacted the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, seeking to negotiate with the FCA.