Union ends long-running dispute with gas company

U.K.

The GMB energy and general union declared an end to the long and bitter dispute with British Gas over its aggressive policy of firing and rehiring workers. GMB members voted three to one to accept a new deal. Around 7,000 British Gas engineers staged 44 days of strike action after the company threatened to sack them if they didn’t sign up to detrimental changes to their terms and conditions. The new deal offers improvements to overtime rates and unsocial hours payments, places limits on the amount of unsocial working undertaken, reverses the decision to close the defined benefit pension scheme to new starters and opens the door for the 500 who were dismissed to return. The GMB says it will never forget British Gas’s unnecessary and cavalier actions and that the new agreement would not have been possible without the tremendous sacrifice of its members.

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