{"id":8954,"date":"2016-06-09T14:29:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T13:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8954"},"modified":"2016-06-09T15:13:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T14:13:12","slug":"worklife-balance-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8954","title":{"rendered":"Work\/life balance attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Faulty gas and electricity meters for households and businesses won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be replaced as meter fixers working for energy giant E.ON go on strike in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098work\/life balance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute tomorrow (June 10).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 400 meter fixers across England and Wales, members of Unite, will be striking from 6am tomorrow until just before midnight on Monday (June 13).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite members, in conjunction with the GMB and Unison, are taking strike action against proposals by E.ON bosses that they work half-an-hour extra three nights- a-week as part of a two per cent proposed pay deal for 2015.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite said that its members regarded this as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the thin end of the wedge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which management could exploit in the future to extend working hours even further and was an attack on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098work\/life balance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by this highly-profitable company.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Homes and businesses could find that gas and electricity supplies being cut off if faulty meters are not replaced \u00e2\u20ac\u201c although Unite has pledged that its members will respond to emergencies that threaten the elderly and vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The strike could prove costly to E.ON as it will have to pay compensation of about \u00c2\u014140 for each customer who has their appointment with a meter fixer cancelled or postponed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members view this demand for an extra 30 minutes of work three nights-a-week as the thin end of the wedge \u00e2\u20ac\u201c before you know it the bosses will be demanding an extra hour five days-a-week,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Micky Tuff.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members work a standard 37-hour week, but that could include a day starting at 8.00am and ending 12 hours later,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are now drawing a line in the sand over the issue of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098work\/life balance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe cost for E.ON could mount up as it will have to fork out about \u00c2\u014140 to customers every time an appointment is cancelled or postponed as a result of the strike,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Tuff went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt should not be forgotten that E.ON has five million customers in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bE.ON can resolve this dispute very swiftly by saying it will abandon the plans for the extra 30 minutes, three days-a-week.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Unite workforce voted by 66 per cent to 33 per cent for strike action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>@ShaunSearsNoble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faulty gas and electricity meters for households and businesses won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be replaced as meter fixers working for energy giant E.ON go on strike in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098work\/life balance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute tomorrow (June 10). &nbsp; Nearly 400 meter fixers across England and Wales, members of Unite, will be striking from 6am tomorrow until just before midnight on Monday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[54],"wps_subtitle":"Faulty meters won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be replaced as E.ON workers stage strike ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954"}],"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=8954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8957,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954\/revisions\/8957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}