John, a British Gas engineer in his late twenties, has been with the company for the past 10 years and currently works in South Wales. But the actions of management has made him take strike action along with thousands of others in his union, The GMB.
British Gas, owned by the international energy firm Centrica, has threatened to sack its workforce if they don’t sign up to worse terms and conditions. Centrica declared an adjusted operating profit of £229 million for its domestic heating business in the UK for the six months to 30 June 2020 – up 27 per cent on the same period in the previous year.
Today is the final day of their 5 day strike. We spoke to John about the strike and why people should support British Gas workers
voice.wales: what drove BG workers to go on strike?
John: In 2020 British Gas announced to its staff that it intended to change their terms and conditions of employment as our existing contracts were outdated and complexed. They briefed the initial proposed terms and conditions before entering into a consultation period with the trade union to try and come to a negotiated agreement. On the first day of negotiations the company declared to the union that if the negotiations were not completed in a short time span they would issue all staff with a S188 document, thus firing and rehiring the workforce on a less favourable contract.
This led the union to initialise proceedings for industrial action. In October 2020, after 60 hours of negotiations, the company declared there would be no further negotiations and that they would brief the negotiated terms to the workforce. Our union, the GMB, did not recommend we accept the new terms as they were extremely unfavourable to us. 89% voted to reject the new terms and conditions as a collective.
The company is still refusing to renegotiate and insist that they will continue to fire and rehire any employee who hasn’t signed the new contract by 1st April. And that’s why we’re striking. To remove the threat of fire and rehire and get back round the table and come to a negotiated agreement.
vw: What was the motivation behind you personally wanting to get involved in the strike, even when you’ve had to forego a week’s wages?
John: I’m striking to show solidarity with my colleagues, to stand up against the bullying tactics of the company, and hopefully make a change. If I stay with the company, the new contracts will result in me losing out on around £10k-£12k annually based on the amount of weekends and overtime working I personally do. This varies massively from engineer to engineer.
vw: What would that mean for your personal life?
John: For me personally it’ll mean a significantly reduced household income. As I’ve just got my first mortgage a couple of months ago the extra income would be very useful as I’ve relied on the well paid overtime during winter. I’ve worked for British Gas for 10 years and overtime has always been readily available and generously paid.
vw: How has this situation made you feel about working for BG?
John: I’m disgusted by the way we’ve been treated. I don’t enjoy the job whatsoever. I’ve been suffering with severe stress going to work and it’s really affected my normally positive attitude and outlook.
vw: And one last question after that, I think this is your first strike(?) So how’s your experience been?
John: This is my first strike, it has been understandably a very difference given the current pandemic. The GMB have been great though, they’ve kept in constant contact with engineers, advised on any developments and really embraced a new way of picketing thanks to technology and the #StopTheBritishGasFire. This hashtag was trending #2 in the UK on Twitter on Thursday and was in the top 10 worldwide. We’ve also had large amounts of backing from many public figures including Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.
