A long-running industrial dispute between British Gas and some of its engineers reached a conclusion yesterday, with hundreds of workers thought to have been let go after refusing to sign new contracts.
The utility group has been locked in a fight with the GMB union over the contracts, which require engineers to work longer hours.
British Gas has been implementing the changes using a “fire and rehire” process and workers who had refused to agree to the contracts were given until midday yesterday to sign them. It was unclear last night how many engineers had been sacked, but between 300 and 400 were expected to have lost their jobs.
British Gas is owned by Centrica, which supplies energy to seven million homes in the UK and has about 20,000 staff in Britain, including approximately 7,500 engineers. Under the new contracts, the working week for engineers will increase from 37 hours to 40 hours. The overhaul, which British Gas started last summer, forms part of Centrica’s plan to revive the business’s fortunesafter a slump in customer numbers.
The GMB, which represents about 7,000 British Gas engineers, has opposed the contracts. The row, which it calls “corporate bullying”, has led to 43 days of strikes.
Centrica said yesterday that about 98 per cent of its workforce had accepted the changes and that it hoped the rest would also sign.
Shares in Centrica, a member of the FTSE 100 index, slipped by ½p, or 0.9 per cent, to 56½p.