Oxfordshire pubs at risk of closing due to debt
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GMB union betrays British Gas strike as deadline passes and hundreds are dismissed
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GMB union betrays British Gas strike as deadline passes and hundreds are dismissed
The deadline for British Gas engineers to sign a fire and rehire contract including a longer working week and a 15 percent pay cut came into effect at midday, Wednesday April 14.
The outcome of the dispute at British Gas has major implications for the entire working class. Research has shown that 1 in 10 workers have been forced to reapply for their job on inferior pay and terms since the start of the pandemic. The dispute at British Gas is the first attempt by a major company to impose fire and rehire contracts on its workforce nationwide.
GMB union complicit in imposing British Gas fire and rehire contracts
British Gas has pressed ahead with plans to dismiss all engineers who refuse to sign an inferior contract including a pay cut of up to 15 percent. It has only agreed to put back the deadline from April 1 to April 14.
Over 7,000 full-time engineers and members of the GMB union have been in dispute with British Gas since early January and have taken 42 days of strike action against the fire and rehire contracts. This has been the largest industrial action in the sector for four decades.
The new contract is based on adding an extra 5.5-8 hours of unpaid work and travel time to the working week. As in every industry and across the public sector, workers face demands to slave away without any family or social life, and on less pay, for the sole purpose of boosting productivity and profits and enforcing austerity cuts.