British Gas guilty of ‘bullying’ following sackings, says union

British Gas was last month accused of corporate bullying after it carried out the mass sackings of engineers who had refused to sign up to new terms and conditions that the GMB union says represent a 15% cut in pay rates.

The mass sackings took place as gas engineers took part on the 43rd day of strike action in this long-running dispute (see Labour Research, March 2021, page 5).

Since then, an official national lockout has been in effect between the union and the energy supplier, including further strike action and action short of a strike.

The union said the strikes have led to a backlog of millions of customers waiting for planned service visits and hundreds of thousands having to wait for emergency repairs.

The GMB said the “graveyards of vans” returned by engineers reflected the company’s indifference to customers and staff.

Justin Bowden, GMB regional secretary warned Chris O’Shea, group chief executive of Centrica, British Gas’ parent company, that the sackings do not mark the end of the dispute.

“These sacked gas engineers are badly needed by customers to clear the huge backlog of missed planned annual service visits and repairs.

“There is sadly nothing in law to stop corporate bullying by companies of their own staff to sign terms they don’t accept and sacking those who don’t submit to this bullying.”