GLASGOW. Scottish Water dispute. Shieldhall Waste Water Treatment Works, Renfrew Road, Glasgow
Workers of Scottish Water on the picket line outside Shieldhall Waste Water Treatment Works, Renfrew Road, Glasgow.
Strike action goes ahead at Scottish Water as Unite says talks ‘waste of time’
500 key frontline workers to take part in first round of four days of action
Unite, Scotland’s leading trade union, can confirm today (Thursday 9 November) that its 500-strong Scottish Water membership will take its first round of strike action after talks with the public body ended in failure.
Unite, along with the other recognised trade unions yesterday (Wednesday 8 November), held its latest round of talks with Scottish Water bosses following the announcement of 48 days of industrial action over three months.
Several rounds of talks through the auspices of the conciliation service Acas have been held but there has been no breakthrough ahead of the first round of industrial action which begins at 00.01 hours on Friday 10 November and ends at 23.59 hours on Monday 13 November. The action includes an overtime and stand-by ban.
A number of major pickets and demonstrations across Scotland will be held in towns and cities to coincide with the strike action. Interviews at the destinations listed in notes to editors can be arranged.
Unite has described the latest talks as a ‘waste of time’ as the trade union accused Scottish Water bosses of proposing a revised offer with ‘more strings attached than a symphony orchestra’.
The trade union’s membership includes waste water operatives, water treatment and burst repair operatives, maintenance engineers, electricians and sewage tanker drivers.
The dispute centres on Unite accusing Scottish Water bosses of bypassing long-standing collective bargaining processes involving unions. This specifically relates to a new ‘reward system’ which Scottish Water bosses are trying to impose on the workforce. The proposed system is being tied to the 2023 pay offer.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, said: “Scottish Water has failed to address the concerns of our members. Instead, Scottish Water has continued to press ahead with its proposed new grading structure which they are foolishly linking to the pay offer.
“Talks have been a waste of time. It appears to be the case that the bosses in the boardroom will only listen to us when our members have taken to the picket lines across Scotland. Unite will fully support our members in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions at Scottish Water.”
Due to the key frontline roles undertaken by Unite’s membership in sewers, water treatment centres and on pipework, the union believes the industrial action will significantly impair Scottish Water’s ability to respond to water leakages, flooding, pollution, and drinking water quality concerns.
In practical terms, this means burst pipe repairs on roads and highways would not be repaired by Unite members.
Workers of Scottish Water on the picket line outside Shieldhall Waste Water Treatment Works, Renfrew Road, Glasgow.
Strike action goes ahead at Scottish Water as Unite says talks ‘waste of time’
500 key frontline workers to take part in first round of four days of action
Unite, Scotland’s leading trade union, can confirm today (Thursday 9 November) that its 500-strong Scottish Water membership will take its first round of strike action after talks with the public body ended in failure.
Unite, along with the other recognised trade unions yesterday (Wednesday 8 November), held its latest round of talks with Scottish Water bosses following the announcement of 48 days of industrial action over three months.
Several rounds of talks through the auspices of the conciliation service Acas have been held but there has been no breakthrough ahead of the first round of industrial action which begins at 00.01 hours on Friday 10 November and ends at 23.59 hours on Monday 13 November. The action includes an overtime and stand-by ban.
A number of major pickets and demonstrations across Scotland will be held in towns and cities to coincide with the strike action. Interviews at the destinations listed in notes to editors can be arranged.
Unite has described the latest talks as a ‘waste of time’ as the trade union accused Scottish Water bosses of proposing a revised offer with ‘more strings attached than a symphony orchestra’.
The trade union’s membership includes waste water operatives, water treatment and burst repair operatives, maintenance engineers, electricians and sewage tanker drivers.
The dispute centres on Unite accusing Scottish Water bosses of bypassing long-standing collective bargaining processes involving unions. This specifically relates to a new ‘reward system’ which Scottish Water bosses are trying to impose on the workforce. The proposed system is being tied to the 2023 pay offer.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, said: “Scottish Water has failed to address the concerns of our members. Instead, Scottish Water has continued to press ahead with its proposed new grading structure which they are foolishly linking to the pay offer.
“Talks have been a waste of time. It appears to be the case that the bosses in the boardroom will only listen to us when our members have taken to the picket lines across Scotland. Unite will fully support our members in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions at Scottish Water.”
Due to the key frontline roles undertaken by Unite’s membership in sewers, water treatment centres and on pipework, the union believes the industrial action will significantly impair Scottish Water’s ability to respond to water leakages, flooding, pollution, and drinking water quality concerns.
In practical terms, this means burst pipe repairs on roads and highways would not be repaired by Unite members.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Today we're at Shield Hall outside Scottish Water and we're here regarding industrial
00:15 action from GMB Scotland and the Joint Trade Unions. This industrial action is round about
00:21 this year's pay award which is now being tied to a pay and grading structure that quite
00:26 frankly there's been no negotiation, no consultation and our members are deeply concerned about
00:31 this. We've got picket lines all across Scotland today and people are really, really angry
00:36 about what's going on. This is not about money, it's not about over-inflated pay increases,
00:42 this is about a job evaluation and a pay structure that our members will be tied to within Scottish
00:48 Water for the next 15 to 20 years. People have a right to be worried and they have a
00:54 right to be concerned. It's regarding the pay and grading structure, as I said there's
00:58 been no negotiation, there's been no consultation. The trade unions have raised concerns around
01:03 the job evaluation and how that's been carried out. We have raised concerns around benchmarking
01:08 because as far as we're aware we've been told that our members in Scottish Water have been
01:12 benchmarked against employers like McDonald's and Amazon as opposed to other water and utility
01:17 companies across the UK. We have a real concern round about the appeals process of this and
01:23 what people would do if they were not happy with their outcome. Finally, we have people
01:29 at the bottom level of this pay structure who are absolutely paying for huge pay increases
01:34 for people at the top level of the structure. Today is the first day of industrial action,
01:39 this is a full weekend, Friday to Monday, of complete industrial action across Scottish
01:44 Water. Moving forward there will be a ban on voluntary overtime, that will be continuous
01:49 and then every Friday, Monday, for the foreseeable future, any type of standby, call out, there
01:56 will be a strike action on that. Which means for every member of the public, every business
02:01 across Scotland, any emergency response, any contact with our response teams within the
02:07 contact centres will not be available because these people will be on strike on an ongoing
02:11 basis. The workforce are angry, the workforce have a right to be angry. They have a senior
02:17 management committee who have sat in front of Scottish Parliament and were unable to
02:21 confirm their huge earnings and yet we have people here who are struggling to pay their
02:27 bills, who have been entered into a paying grading structure that has no clarity, that
02:32 has no transparency and to be quite frank, they don't know where they stand in it. With
02:36 the general public and it's everyone across Scotland that will affect, any response to
02:41 any type of emergencies regarding sewage, flooding, if there was any type of bad weather
02:46 the way we've had in the previous weekend, where Scottish Water were integral to resolving
02:50 those issues, that will not be there. People will be left wondering what Scottish Water
02:55 are actually doing to resolve this issue. This is the most avoidable industrial action
03:01 that any of our trade unions have been involved in for many, many years. There is a clear
03:06 solution to this. Decouple this year's pay structure with this year's pay award. Let's
03:12 give our members a pay award that they deserve and then let's have a look at the pay structure.
03:17 We absolutely are in agreement that that needs to be reviewed, it needs to be updated but
03:22 let's do it properly, let's do it jointly with the trade unions and let's get our members
03:26 back to work.
03:27 [Music]
03:32 (music)
03:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]