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23 January, 2012
With company after company in the UK private sector seeking to shut off workers’ final pension schemes, it comes as a relief that one company heeded a union’s concerns and cancelled such a plan for now.
ICEM affiliate Unite the Union on 12 January convinced German luxury auto maker BMW to back away from closing its final pension salary scheme to new workers, and to retreat from implementing a loophole in Britain’s new Agency Workers’ Regulation (AWR) that would allow BMW to directly employ agency workers on contracts that pay as much as 20% less than permanent workers of the company.
The loophole, Regulation 10 of the AWR and also known as the “Swedish Derogation” language, would allow an employer to take workers employed by labour hire firms onto their payrolls, but to avoid the equal-pay for equal-work principal of the AWR.
In December when BMW announced its intention to move ahead with the two regressive changes, Unite responded that it would consult workplace leaders towards an industrial ballot. If voted and approved, such possible strike action would have occurred for 7,000 Unite members at four BMW plants, including Swindon, Cowley, Hams Hall near Birmingham, and the Rolls Royce factory in Goodwood.
But talks between Unite, its BMW shop stewards and management two weeks ago convinced UK management to forego closing off the pension scheme to new hires and not to use the “Swedish Derogation” model. Instead, BMW agreed to engage Unite and its shop-floor leaders from all four plants in dialogue on a positive path forward without the harsh workplace changes.
Unite National Officer Roger Madisson commented, “As always we are prepared to have meaningful discussions with companies in the car industry. Unite is determined to protect all the terms and conditions of our members and ensure that agency workers are treated fairly, in the true spirit of the agency workers’ legislation.”
Unite’s Cowley plant Convenor Chris Bond told the Oxford Mail, “I am over the moon about it. The company has listened to our concerns. (Industrial action) has been averted for now.”
As for UK BMW management, it said in a statement, “The company and Unite, the union, have jointly agreed to enter into discussions relating to the use of agency staff. We agreed to go back into discussions with the union on the pensions scheme and the AWR.”