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5 April, 2010
On 23 March, 8,000 members of the ICEM affiliate in the UK, GMB, voted for strike action against British Gas by 82%. Upon releasing the ballot results, GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny said, “It is now time for them to sit up and take notice. We are giving British Gas a week to give us a constructive response.”
Last week, GMB got that constructive response. The electric and gas utility that is owned by Centrica Plc. began positive discussions with the union and as a result, threatened strike action was halted.
GMB and management of British Gas issued a joint statement saying a new relationship will be “built on trust and the ability to have frank, honest debate.” The two sides will use the month of April to engage in substantive negotiations on pay and work conditions. “Neither party will be seeking to undermine the other in these talks,” read the statement.
Paul Kenny
As a start, the company has separated a performance management process from arbitrary discipline, something that had been used indiscriminately in recent months to reprimand engineers, service and repair mechanics, and other workers. The union and company also agreed to zero tolerance on bullying, an issue brought forward through a GMB workers’ survey that revealed overwhelmingly that a “bullying management culture” had set in.
The two sides agreed also to job times. Kenny said last week’s “discussions have not been easy, but we do now have a platform on which to build relations.
“It is positive that the company respects the position of GMB.”
British Gas Managing Director Phil Bentley stated, “We remain committed to growth and as British Gas grows we want to create an environment in which our union relationships develop with us. Looking forward, we have the opportunity to work together with GMB to agree a new and exciting future for our engineers.”
GMB’s 21 national shop stewards at British Gas will meet this week with management to formalise the process forward. A short two months ago, GMB and British Gas were completely polarised, as reflected in this ICEM dispatch then. The ICEM commends our British affiliate, and senior management of the company, in establishing the proper social protocol to resolve outstanding issues.