Mixed fortunes on deals but Prospect wins out

An important union recognition deal has been voluntarily agreed for over 500 staff in the private sector nuclear industry.

After three years of negotiation, managers’ and specialists’ union Prospect has obtained collective bargaining rights on behalf of professional, technical and some admin grades at six sites of Babcock International-Nuclear.

The deal covers Babcock Nuclear Services and Construction Services group sites in Leicester, Bristol, Warrington, Dounreay, West Cumbria and Newbury, Berkshire.

Prospect national secretary Gill Wood said: “This is the largest private-sector recognition deal that the union has secured since its formation in 2001.” The union was a predominantly public sector union when it was created through the merger of the IPMS and EMA unions exactly 12 years ago.

Less successful has been the Community union’s bid for recognition at the Port Glasgow-based firm, Promedics, which supplies orthopaedic products to the NHS. The union has been building up membership at the company in recent months, but its approach for a voluntary recognition agreement has been rejected by the company.

Despite the intervention of employment relations service Acas and the local Labour MP, the management ignored the approach, preferring the in-house works council, dismissed by employees as “a joke”.

The union will now take its case to the Central Arbitration Committee for a ruling.

www.prospect.org.uk/news/story/2013/October/2/New-Prospect-recognition-deal-01327