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8 February, 2010
Workers of ICEM affiliated union GMB in the UK will likely see issuance of a ballot for industrial action this week British Gas, the largest gas supplier in the country that is a part of Centrica Plc. The intended job actions are in response to an opaque but and aggressive flexibility and management performance agenda that could cost up to 5,000 jobs.
In a survey of its members, GMB reported that out of 3,000 responses, by a margin of eight to one, workers say there is a “bullying management culture” within British Gas. The survey directly contradicts the company’s own Employee Engagement programme, and affirms that workers are facing unnecessary pressure and feel alienated from the company due to poor planning and bad management.
The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that workers have been forced to work long hours during the coldest winter in decades, all the while hearing mixed messages and getting competing demands from management. Contained in British Gas internal documents, the company is proposing that 5,000 jobs be cut, which could mean job loss for many skilled engineers who work on domestic appliances.
Gary Smith
“Our members are starting to understand that there is a threat to the terms and conditions of employment that we have fought for over many years,” said GMB National Secretary Gary Smith. “Employees are sick to the back teeth of the pressure they face day to day from senior management.”
Much of the staff anger is pointed at Managing Director Phil Bentley, who has not given the union a straight answer on the job cuts and stands accused by GMB of creating a “new macho management” culture, with its only purpose to cut costs. This cost cutting is across the board and affects such things as the purchase of parts for boilers. Bentley’s new work culture, for example, means creation of an arbitrary performance management process that could lead to easy discipline of employees.
In an e-mail, Bentley stated that at One British Gas, the retail arm of the utility, “the big, hairy, audacious goal I’ve thrown down on One British Gas is to reduce our non-customer-facing full-time employment equivalent by 25%.” The 5,000 job cuts, if they materialize, could prove devastating for British Gas and Scottish Gas workers in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Uddingston near Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
If the industrial ballot is issued this week, it will be counted and assessed in late February.
Centrica serves 15.6 million residential electricity and gas customers in the UK, largely under the British Gas name. Through its Direct Energy subsidiary, Centrica also supplies residential gas and power service in the US, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.