Unions make gains in shift pay dispute

Unions won some concessions over shift pay harmonsiation following strike action at the BNFL nuclear fuels plant at Sellafield in Cumbria.

A new three-year deal for 2,400 manual workers represented by manufacturing union Amicus and the GMB general union means that premia will increase by £2,000, establishing parity with white collar staff by 2006 and there are extra pension benefits for anyone who retires in the interim period.

The Sellafield dispute arose over the company's unfulfilled commitment to end the gap in shift pay, and involved three days of strike action. Currently, shift pay is worth £6,750 for industrial workers and £8,750 for staff. The unions said that the company had agreed to close this gap by April 2004, but this year said that harmonisation would not be completed until 2009.

The offer is being put to the Sellafield workforce with a union recommendation to accept.

At the Air Products plant at Acrefair, North Wales, 130 manual workers secured a 7% pay rise and a one-off lump sum payment of £400 per person with effect from 1 September. Negotiations over the settlement began as long ago as January and resulted in an overtime ban in August.

The new agreement runs until the end of January 2005 and increases craft workers' rates to between £11.29 and £11.98 per hour. The night shift allowance is worth 29.5%.