{"id":2941,"date":"2015-02-03T17:02:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T17:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2941"},"modified":"2015-02-03T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T17:02:12","slug":"road-fairer-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2941","title":{"rendered":"On the road to fairer wages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The M25 is one of the busiest motorways in all of Europe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an estimated half a million cars travel on it each day. One portion of the continent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second longest orbital road spans a full twelve lanes.<\/p>\n

 
\nMaintaining and supporting such a massive motorway is no easy task, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect those on the job to be paid fairly for work that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often dangerous and distressing.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut M25 maintenance, emergency and incident support workers have had no choice but to take industrial action against their employer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a pay rise in four years, and some of the contracted workers are on inferior sick pay terms.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite attempted to resolve the dispute, but to no avail, meaning strike action is on the horizon commencing Monday, February 16. The 24-hour strike will be followed by additional single-day strikes every week thereafter. They will also be working to rule, which could lead to delays in in clearing accidents, gritting the motorway and repairs.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite argues that the employer, Connect Plus Services (CPS), operates on a multi-billion pound surplus, and so can more than afford to pay its workers more.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe union said the dispute can easily be solved by meeting workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 demands for a \u00c2\u014130,000 basic wage, day-one sick pay and full recognition of the union by the employer. Currently, some workers are not entitled to sick pay for the first three days of ill health.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe average wage across the workforce at present is \u00c2\u014125,000, while the CEO of Balfour Beatty, one of the contractors part of CPS, is paid 32 times more than its average worker, with a basic wage of \u00c2\u0141800,000 a year.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a lucrative 25 year contract to maintain the M25 which will make Connect Plus Services \u00c2\u01417 million operating surplus each year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite officer for the construction sector Malcolm Bonnett. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is plenty of room in it for the company to pocket healthy profits while paying decent wages and harmonising the workers’ terms.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese workers are out in all weathers, working long hours -sometimes as long as 50 plus hours a week – in extremely hazardous conditions facing fast-moving traffic,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese are the workers who have to clear up after accidents, which is extremely distressing work. They risk their lives to keep the orbital running and the 200,000 cars on it every day moving.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBy any measure they deserve a fair wage, which is all they are asking for, paid for from company profits, not pinched from the wage packets of the workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Bonnett went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo we are appealing to the employers, sit down with us, work with the union, get this dispute sorted and keep the M25 moving.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nCPS workers voted almost unanimously for the planned series of actions, with 97 per cent in favour of working to rule and 97 per cent in favour of one day of strike actions every week until their demands are met.<\/p>\n

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The M25 is one of the busiest motorways in all of Europe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an estimated half a million cars travel on it each day. One portion of the continent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second longest orbital road spans a full twelve lanes.   Maintaining and supporting such a massive motorway is no easy task, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect those on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[132],"wps_subtitle":"M25 motorway workers set to strike","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}