{"id":9427,"date":"2016-08-03T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T11:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9427"},"modified":"2016-08-03T12:42:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T11:42:10","slug":"now-you-see-it-now-you-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9427","title":{"rendered":"Now you see it, now you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Shop fitters in Newcastle are locked in a dispute over a pay offer that has been branded as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bizarre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The offer from the company sees workers given a 25 pence an hour increase and their working week reduced by an hour until December 16 2016, for the pay rise then to be taken away and their working week increased back to 37.5 hours a week.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis \u00e2\u20ac\u0098now you see it, now you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay offer is not only bizarre, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insulting,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mark Sanderson, Unite regional officer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The 40 shop fitters, who work for HMY Radford in Burnopfield, Newcastle kit out high street stores including Tesco and Vodafone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never seen anything like it, where an employer proposes a pay increase for fewer hours only to take it away months after and expect people to work longer for less,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The company is also refusing to backdate the proposed pay increase to the beginning of this year despite the anniversary for pay increases being January of each year.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers are quite rightly angry at what they first thought was a mistake on the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behalf,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It follows a pay freeze for 2015 and several years of below inflation pay increases resulting in workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wages falling behind the cost of living.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSenior management at HMY Radford need to get real and offer a permanent pay rise which reflects the hard work of staff who have seen their pay eroded over the years with below inflation rises and pay freezes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Workers will today (Wednesday August 3) begin a three day walkout to show management how incensed they are at the ridiculous offer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStrike action is a last resort, but our members have been pushed to the limit by a management who seem intent on playing games,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe urge the company to enter in to meaningful talks to avoid the disruption of further industrial action,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shop fitters in Newcastle are locked in a dispute over a pay offer that has been branded as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bizarre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite. \u00c2\u00a0 The offer from the company sees workers given a 25 pence an hour increase and their working week reduced by an hour until December 16 2016, for the pay rise then to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[135],"wps_subtitle":"The UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most bizarre pay offer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427"}],"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=9427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9428,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427\/revisions\/9428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}