You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
London council housing repair workers strike over pay
Nearly 150 housing repair workers at a London council have begun a strike over pay.
Greenwich Council workers began an initial day of strike action on Tuesday 28 May and set up a picket line outside the Birchmere Centre in Thamesmead.
The workers, who are members of Unite, the trade union, are employed in the repairs and investment service department of the council.
According to Unite, the local authority had brought in plans that would lead to the workers losing nearly a third of their wages.
Following a pay-benchmarking exercise, pay cuts would be enacted in stages over four years. Some workers would lose nearly £17,000 from their salary by the fourth year, the union claimed.
READ MORE
However, the council said the workers had salaries “well above [the] industry average” and that their demand for a £60,000 lump sum per employee on top of average wages was unaffordable.
The union said the strike would escalate if the pay dispute was not resolved.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said the plans were “a brutal and unjustified attack on our members’ living standards” and would force the workers into debt.
Mary Summers, regional officer at Unite, said the strike “will inevitably cause delays and disruptions to Greenwich’s housing stock”, but this dispute was “entirely of the council’s own making”.
She added: “The council needs to take this abhorrent pay cut off the table.”
A Greenwich Council spokesperson said the local authority’s budget had been “cut to the bone” after 13 years of government austerity and “we owe it to our residents to regularly assess how we can best deliver for our communities and protect frontline services”.
For that reason, they said the council “reviewed the wage structure” of some repairs staff who, in some cases, “due to a complicated and historic bonus arrangement”, have salaries “well above industry average – even of upwards of £100,000”.
Following “months of dialogue” with unions, Greenwich proposed a new structure which it believes “delivers better value for money for our tenants, while still appropriately reflecting the work that our staff carry out”.
However, when “we felt negotiations were nearing a reasonable resolution”, workers hit the council with a “last-minute rejection” and counteroffer of a £60,000 lump sum per employee, on top of above-average wages.
This offer was “unreasonable, unaffordable and frankly unrealistic – and unfair on staff who have engaged in productive conversations to this point and deserve clarity”, the council said.
The spokesperson continued: “While we respect the union’s right to ballot for strike action, we would very much welcome a return to reasonable discussions.
“In the meantime, we have all the appropriate resources in place to carry out essential repairs for our tenants.”
At the end of last month, Unite criticised a new partnership where a landlord offered loans to striking employees.
The union said it was a “desperate attempt to quell escalating strike action”, but Sanctuary said the scheme had nothing to do with the action and it was being offered to all employees through a third party.
Sign up for our Council Focus newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
