Industry

East Sussex waste strike suspended to allow Kier to address concerns

East Sussex waste strike suspended to allow Kier to address concerns

Trade union GMB has suspended plans for 154 of its members employed by Kier Environmental Services (KES) to strike today and tomorrow (12 -13 March), to allow the waste management company to address concerns raised.

GMB members have been involved in a dispute with KES over ‘the failure to address serious health and safety concerns’ as well as reports of ‘widespread bullying and intimidation’.

History

On 5 February, GMB announced it was considering taking strike action in Hastings, Rother and Eastbourne due to a ‘lack of response and the seeming disregard that Kier management have for the concerns and well-being of their staff’.

The grievances related to the fact that KES recognised that lifting bins used for glass recycling presented a danger to workers when lifted, but had reportedly ‘refused to act on or take the concerns of GMB members over health and safety’.

GMB had also claimed that staff were being subject to ‘wide spread intimidation and bullying by local managers’ and that this led some workers to sign off 'sick with stress’.



Gary Cook, GMB Regional Organiser said: "GMB told Kier’s Regional Contracts Manager and the HR Business Manager some weeks ago of the concerns of GMB members, the company has not addressed any of the issues in a meaningful manner. 

 GMB members are rightly angry at the lack of response and the seeming disregard that Kier management have for the concerns and wellbeing of their staff."

However, an agreement has now reportedly been reached and KES has said it will put in place a number of measures to address the grievances of the workforce. As such, the industrial action planned for the today and tomorrow has been suspended.

A Kier spokesperson said: “Kier takes the concern of employee well-being and health and safety very seriously and we have robust procedures in place to protect our people and address any concerns. We are committed to ongoing discussions and have met with the GMB on a number of occasions over the past few weeks to discuss issues that the union has raised and which we have responded to.

"Following a further meeting on 10 March a number of new minor issues have been raised and the GMB has suspended the planned industrial action for 12 and 13 March to enable us to resolve these. We are committed to following through on our proposals and therefore hope that the GMB will fulfil its commitment to cancelling the planned action in the next few weeks. We are dedicated to providing local residents with a full service and have a contingency plan in place should the GMB decide to continue with further action.”

GMB has said, however, that if the ‘measures’ are not introduced ‘as soon as possible’ by KES, strike action will take place later in March.

GMB Senior Organiser Charles Harrity commented: “The agreement to suspend the action only applies to the 12th and 13th of March. Should Kier Environmental not action their proposals as soon as possible the GMB members have made it clear… that they are prepared to take action on the other days already notified to the company.

“Strike action is scheduled for 19th and 20th of March and 25th, 26th and 27th of March.

“This represents an opportunity for the company to address the outstanding issues which should help to rebuild confidence in the industrial relations process.”

GMB/Kier blacklisting dispute

As well as this issue, GMB is in a separate dispute with Kier Group (and seven other construction companies) across the UK over its ‘failure to compensate workers they blacklisted’.

Blacklisting came to light when in 2009 the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) seized a Consulting Association database of 3,213 construction workers and environmental activists used by 44 companies to vet new recruits and keep out employment trade union and health and safety activists, who were viewed as being ‘troublesome’.

Documents in the High Court show that Kier Group provided the Consulting Association with information on 229 workers, of which seven were from Norfolk.

As such, Kier (and Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC) have admitted culpability and are offering compensation of between £4,000 and £100,000 to blacklisted workers.

However, GMB has said that the compensation offer was ‘grossly inadequate for firms with pre-tax profits of £1.04 billion’, and they should ‘own up, clean up and pay up, and until they do so they should get no more public-sector work’.

It intends to proceed with legal action in the hopes of workers ‘winning many times more from the courts’.

Find out more about the GMB safety dispute with Kier or the blacklisting case.