{"id":4231,"date":"2015-05-21T11:17:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T10:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4231"},"modified":"2015-05-21T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T10:17:06","slug":"ni-water-workers-wage-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4231","title":{"rendered":"NI Water workers wage win"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>A dispute among NI Water workers, which began over the Christmas season, has come to an end after members officially accepted an increased pay offer on Wednesday (May 20), which was just recently signed off by the finance minister.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe new two-year pay deal provides increases backdated to August 2014 which will more than cover the additional costs associated with pension reform. It exceeds the Stormont pay cap and will provide for 4 per cent increases at the bare minimum.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnite industrial officer Joanne McWilliams confirmed that workers across the Water Group of Trade Unions had agreed to the final offer by NI Water management.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe deal has been endorsed by a large majority of members across all unions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe deal won for our members applies to both the industrial and non-industrial workforce within NI Water and came on the back of several weeks of industrial action in the New Year caused by management intransigence.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/water-strike-battle-austerity-cuts\/\">As UNITElive reported in January<\/a>, NI water workers, some of the lowest paid workers in the UK, began a work-to-rule action that disrupted water supplies for thousands of homes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nMcWilliams called the action a \u00e2\u20ac\u015blast resort\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdefend our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nShe said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIts success demonstrates the extent to which NI Water is dependent on the goodwill and overtime of its workforce.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe pay increases exceed the Stormont pay cap and commence the process of addressing the issue of low pay in NI Water,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McWilliams added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nBut, she noted, even after the increase \u00e2\u20ac\u015bour members remain among the lowest paid utility workers in the UK and Ireland.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nMcWilliams went on to say that Unite is committed to the efficient operation of NI water as a public body meeting the needs of the community, but, she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthis will not be achieved by punishing low-paid workers who keep the service operational.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nMcWilliams warned that the NI Executive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmiserly policies\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in relation to pay for industrial public sector workers could mean further industrial action to be taken by low-paid workers in other public bodies \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwith the aim of defending their standards of living.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A dispute among NI Water workers, which began over the Christmas season, has come to an end after members officially accepted an increased pay offer on Wednesday (May 20), which was just recently signed off by the finance minister. &nbsp; The new two-year pay deal provides increases backdated to August 2014 which will more than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[219,186],"wps_subtitle":"Increased pay offer ends NI Water workers dispute","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231"}],"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=4231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4232,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4231\/revisions\/4232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}