{"id":53431,"date":"2021-02-25T11:05:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T11:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=767937"},"modified":"2021-02-25T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T11:05:10","slug":"british-gas-engineers-to-launch-new-wave-of-strikes-over-fire-and-rehire-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/25\/british-gas-engineers-to-launch-new-wave-of-strikes-over-fire-and-rehire-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"British Gas engineers to launch new wave of strikes over fire and rehire plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>British Gas engineers will launch a fresh wave of strikes on 26 February in a deadlocked dispute over pay and conditions.<\/p>\n<h5>Strike<\/h5>\n<p>Members of the GMB union will walk out for four days following weeks of action since the start of the year. Parent company Centrica announced on 25 February that its underlying earnings had fallen by almost a third as it lost more customers. The group reported a 31% drop in underlying operating profits to \u00a3447m for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Talks have been held between the two sides at the conciliation service Acas, but the union has accused the company of refusing to withdraw fire and rehire plans.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"fj4ZSVDMGXUU0tn72clPIZh86R3O0q7vqEGrAkBiJ5znSANJeKuyscglXTEHbbf9LiwxQRkTa1odojD5axOz68Pu1Y2CeLV\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fire and rehire remains the main obstacle to a potential settlement from the British Gas talks at ACAS.<\/p>\n<p>It is a profitable company &#8211; they don&#39;t need to do this.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StopTheBritishGasFire?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StopTheBritishGasFire<\/a> <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f525.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pYOxfqmj7a\">https:\/\/t.co\/pYOxfqmj7a<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; GMB Union (@GMB_union) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GMB_union\/status\/1364872235891187715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<figure><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Centrica said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have plans in place to manage industrial action but we\u2019re sorry for any disruption this is causing to our customers. We\u2019ll continue to prioritise vulnerable customers and emergency situations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Centrica chief executive Chris O\u2019Shea said about the Acas discussions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>These talks have given us the basis, hopefully, for an agreement which is being presented to our staff at the moment. I\u2019m really hopeful we can move forward with the GMB in line with other unions, where we already have agreements.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Union position<\/h5>\n<p>Justin\u202fBowden, GMB national officer, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last summer, when British Gas decided on fire and rehire pay cuts for gas engineers, it was already a profitable company \u2013 as today\u2019s results confirm. So there is no need to hurt workers, customers and shareholders. Refusing to take fire and rehire off the table is the main obstacle to a settlement at Acas.<\/p>\n<p>After\u202f22\u202fdays of strikes, more than 230,000 homes are in a backlog for repairs and 300,000 planned annual service visits have been axed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/news\/2021\/02\/25\/british-gas-engineers-to-launch-new-wave-of-strikes-over-fire-and-rehire-plans\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the GMB union will walk out for four days from Friday.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10095,10096,4,6656,1395,1948,1499],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53431"}],"version-history":[{"count":119,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65035,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431\/revisions\/65035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}