{"id":5222,"date":"2015-08-11T17:13:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T16:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5222"},"modified":"2015-08-11T17:13:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T16:13:43","slug":"edf-strike-suspended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5222","title":{"rendered":"EDF strike suspended"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Two days of strike action by EDF Energy staff that would have affected the rollout of a Smart meter installation programme across London and southern and western England have been suspended for negotiations to take place.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 500 Unite members were due to strike for 24 hours from just past midnight tomorrow (August 12) and at the same time on Thursday, August 20.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meter readers and fixers, office staff and managers are in a dispute over pay cuts, job losses and working extended hours to install the meters. If the proposals were allowed to go through some staff would lose up to \u00c2\u01416,000 a year in income.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite regional officer Onay Kasab confirmed that the strikes had been suspended following an offer on talks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe employers are offering to hear our grievances via a two person panel,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne will be from the trade union side and the other will represent management.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are going to meet the employer on Thursday (August 13) to agree terms of reference for the panel,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will be entering into these negotiations in a constructive and meaningful fashion.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite members had voted by a margin of 85 per cent for strike action and 92 per cent were in favour of industrial action short of a strike.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The dispute centres on a list of issues including extending working hours to install Smart meters, but withdrawing the London allowance which could mean a pay cut of up to \u00c2\u01416,000.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite members are also concerned about lack of pay awards for staff on personal contracts, despite management saying performance pay should be awarded if targets are met.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Job losses caused by managers applying for their own jobs and if rejected, facing potential unemployment was another grievance that Unite has raised in the dispute.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The EDF Energy sites that would have been affected by strike action are:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Broadway, Bexley Heath, Kent, DA6 8ET; Georgiana Street, London NW1 0QS; Three Bridges, Crawley RH10 1QQ; Speedwell, Bristol BS15 1NT; Osprey Road, Exeter EX2 7WN; Exeter Business Park, Exeter EX1 3UT; Outland Road, Plymouth PL3 5TU; Portland Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 5S; and Canning Town, London E16 4TL<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned on UNITElive for the latest on this dispute as negotiations begin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two days of strike action by EDF Energy staff that would have affected the rollout of a Smart meter installation programme across London and southern and western England have been suspended for negotiations to take place. &nbsp; Nearly 500 Unite members were due to strike for 24 hours from just past midnight tomorrow (August 12) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[206],"wps_subtitle":"Action over pay called off","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222"}],"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=5222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5223,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5222\/revisions\/5223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}