GMB urges Scottish Water to get serious as more strikes begin
GMB Scotland has warned Scottish Water must get serious to resolve an escalating pay dispute as a wave of strikes begins at the publicly-owned utility.
Hundreds of workers began seven days of walkouts today with the action threatening to disrupt emergency repairs, testing and maintenance.
GMB Scotland said management has badly mishandled months of pay talks and driven workers into industrial action.
Claire Greer, GMB Scotland organiser in Scottish Water, has written to Gillian Martin, secretary for net zero and energy, detailing concern about the company’s failure to resolve the dispute.
She said: “It is impossible to know whether Scottish Water is playing games or simply inept but the relentless progress of this dispute towards industrial action could have been halted at any time with open and straightforward negotiations.
“Instead, we have been given a series of needlessly complicated offers, one worse than the last, as managers spend more time attempting to undermine staff unions than delivering a fair offer.
“It needs to stop and if Scottish Water do not know how, ministers must explain public money is being risked by a dispute that should have been settled months ago.
“The public deserves better and workers deserve a fair pay offer.”
Scottish Water members of GMB Scotland and other unions will strike from Monday for seven consecutive days with a mass rally planned in Glasgow on Wednesday.
Workers overwhelmingly backed industrial action after the water company, where executives received record bonuses last year, reduced the terms of a pay offer that had already been rejected.
Staff voted against an offer of 3.4% or £1400 covering the last nine months as the company changes the date for annual rises to take effect from July to April.
Greer branded Scottish Water’s handling of negotiations “wilfully inept” adding: “Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is both the definition of madness and Scottish Water’s idea of industrial relations.
“The company has allowed these negotiations to stumble on for months when a simple, transparent and fair pay offer would have been welcomed by our members and averted industrial action.
“Scottish Water’s refusal to engage with negotiations in a serious and uncomplicated way has led us here and, unless that changes, the dispute will continue and industrial action will escalate.”
In her letter to Martin, the minister responsible for Scottish Water, Greer urges her to encourage the company to return to negotiations intent on resolving the dispute.
She highlighted a series of concerns around the company’s including attempts to bypass unions and negotiate with workers directly and quoting incorrect salary details in a formal pay offer.
Greer concluded: “Management have demonstrated they do not intend to engage in good faith with unions, take the basic steps to avert strike action, or deliver a pay offer that values the workforce.”
