Centrica hit by second GMB strike

The GMB union has accused Centrica of “ignoring” a five-day strike by its members last week as it unveiled a further walkout at the end of this month.

Around 7,000 GMB members at British Gas will down tools for 24 hours on each of 20, 22, 25 and 29 January, as well as 1 February. It follows a full week of industrial action from 7 January.

The union urged the company to “take fire and rehire pay cuts off the table” to end the dispute. Centrica retorted that GMB was out of step with other unions and “fighting against modernisation”.

Last June the energy firm announced it would be undertaking a major restructure in which 5,000 jobs, the majority of which are managerial roles, would be cut.

As part of the restructure, Centrica wants to modernise the terms and conditions of more than 80 different types of employee contracts with more than 7,000 variations in terms by reducing this to four standard contracts across the company.

In July Centrica issued HR1 and S.188 notices, which allow it, in a “last resort”, to terminate workers’ contracts and issue new ones with updated terms and conditions.

Following the postponement of the plans, GMB’s British Gas members were balloted in December and 89 per cent voted in favour of industrial action.

This is in contrast to Unite and Unison where a majority of members voted to back the revised contract proposals.

Alongside the new strike dates, the GMB has launched an appeal to its branches and other trade union bodies to support a £250,000 strike fund.

GMB national secretary Justin Bowden said: “A profitable British Gas provoked their loyal staff into strike action in the depths of winter by refusing to heed their overwhelming rejection of the fire and rehire pay cuts.

“They have now ignored a five-day demonstration by the engineers that the proposals are not acceptable.

“They are forcing further disruption on their customers all the way into next month because of the new strike dates.

“British Gas should recognise that the only way to end the disruption they provoked is to take fire and rehire pay cuts off the table.”

A Centrica spokesperson said: “We’ve done everything we can with the GMB to avoid industrial action. Whilst we’ve made great progress with our other unions, sadly the GMB leadership seems intent on causing disruption to customers during the coldest time of the year, amid a global health crisis and in the middle of a national lockdown.

“Over 83 per cent of our workforce have already accepted our new terms, in which base pay and pensions are protected, including a significant majority of GMB members. This shows most of our people understand that our business needs to change because customer needs are changing.

“GMB’s mandate for strike action is weak; they are fighting against modernisation and changes which will help to protect well paid jobs in the long term and are doing so at a time that our country needs everyone to pull together.”