UNIONS and power company bosses have been locked in talks this week in a bid to avert a strike over pay.
More than 1,000 electricity supply distribution workers in Yorkshire and the north are involved in the dispute.
These workers provide a 24 hour, seven days a week service and they maintain and repair overground and underground cables and facilitie
s to keep power flowing to homes and businesses, including those in Beverley.
CE Electric UK confirmed that further talks were taking place this week between the company and the unions representing the company’s industrial workforce, UNITE and GMB.
The GMB claimed that an official strike ballot had been held in which GMB members voted by 88 per cent to 12 per cent to take strike action to secure what its officials say would be wage levels comparable to those elsewhere in the utilities sector.
These follow discussions last week which explored a number of options around the current pay offer, which offers around 10 per cent over two years, including the possibility of a longer term deal.
The trade unions agreed during last week’s meetings that while the meetings continue they will not serve formal notice of strike action.
A spokesman for CE Electric said: “We do not recognise the GMB’s allegation that the company is paying contractors four times the rate of its own staff.”
He added: “When they make their comparisons, the unions disregard the reality that our employees are on an extremely generous final salary pension scheme and have other benefits that far outstrip the equivalents that are generally available in the contracting market.
The CE spokesman said: “We are hopeful that the detailed proposals we are hoping to make to the trade unions will be viewed as being a route towards settlement.”
The full article contains 307 words and appears in Beverley Guardian newspaper.
