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Kier settles union dispute

2 Sep 13 Planned industrial action to disrupt Kier Services local authority contracts has been called off after a compromise was negotiated.

Construction union Ucatt was in dispute with Kier Services over the company’s proposal to bring the pay date of employees that previously worked for the acquired May Gurney business into line with the rest of the Kier Group.

Ucatt objected to the lack of negotiations over the proposal to change the date it paid workers from the 15th to the 28th of every month.

In an industrial action ballot last month, 74.4% of Ucatt members at the company voted to support strike action and 86.3% voted to support industrial action short of strike action.

Following the ballot, Kier’s management made fresh concessions to the workers. These were:

  • a loan of 50% of one month’s pay repaid over 12 months
  • a loan of 100% of one month’s pay repaid over 12 months
  • a loan of 50% of one month’s pay retained as an overpayment and recovered when an employee leaves the business for any reason, including but not limited to redundancy, retirement or TUPE transfer.

Ucatt then held further consultation with its members at Kier and found overwhelmingly support for the new proposals.

Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy said: “Kier have seen sense and listened to the genuine concerns of our members. This dispute was entirely preventable. Through negotiations we have reached agreement which will result in no detriment to the workers concerned.”

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MPU
MPU

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