EDF smart meter installers to strike

EDF Energy workers carrying out smart meter installations will go ahead with a five day strike next week.

Unite, the country’s largest union, suspended a strike in November for talks with management and Acas, the conciliation service.

The talks were about staff working hours during the installation of the smart meter programme. Unite later said that the talks had “broken down” due to “pig headed bosses”.

As a result, about 70 staff at EDF headquarters at Bexleyheath, Kent and Canning Town are due to strike from midnight on Monday 11 January until midnight on Friday 15 January.

Regional officer for Unite, Onay Kasab, said: “Unite went into the Acas talks before Christmas in good faith, but they have been sabotaged by pig headed management.
 
“The main sticking point is the requirement to work regular evenings and weekends as part of the installation of the smart meter programme.”
 
Unite members had voted by a margin of 85 per cent for strike action and 92 per cent were in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

In a statement, EDF commented: “Existing employees are not being asked to work hours outside of those stated in their contracts.
 
“Due to changes in our working practices, such as no longer having night shift rotas, some financial allowances for our employees are no longer applicable. However, we have agreed to honour these allowances at their current level until December 2020, at which point they will be reviewed.
 
“We have been in continuous talks with Unite. The vast majority of issues are consultation items rather than negotiation and having discussed these for most of 2015 we are now in a position where we must implement these changes.”

EDF added that they “remain open, as always, to meeting employee representatives”.