New Year strikes loom at Dounreay as GMB launches ballot over ‘derisory’ pay offer
New Year strikes loom at Dounreay as GMB launches ballot over ‘derisory’ pay offer
GMB Scotland has today (Thursday 23 November) served notice on Dounreay nuclear decommissioning site operator DSRL of an industrial action ballot over a ‘derisory’ below inflation pay offer, sparking the likelihood of strikes early in the New Year.
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) management are refusing to move on a 1.75 per cent increase on the basic rate of pay, with a further 0.5 per cent added to basic pay by cutting progression payments by 50 per cent.
However, with inflation now running at 3 per cent CPI and 4 per cent RPI and against a backdrop of three successive real-terms pay cuts, local workers are seeking a cost of living matching increase.
DSRL, a wholly owned subsidiary of its parent body organisation, Cavendish Dounreay Partnership, increased its profits in 2016 for the second consecutive year to over £9 million.
The industrial action ballot will run from Friday 1 December until Thursday 21 December.
GMB Scotland Organiser Liz Gordon said: “This pay offer makes a mockery of DSRL’s claim that they want to be recognised as a European reference site and global leader for nuclear decommissioning.
Dounreay is the focal point of the Caithness economy and this is a highly localised workforce, so it is absolutely imperative that pay matches the cost of living to help deliver prosperity not just for our members but also our local communities.
We are in the business of defending the interests of our members who deliver the decommissioning of this safety intensive site and we will settle for nothing less than the proper recognition and reward for this workforce.
Our members have helped generate healthy profits for DSRL and its executives but this below inflation pay offer is derisory. DSRL need to think again if they want to avoid industrial action in the New Year.”
Contact: GMB Scotland Organiser Liz Gordon on 07920 838588 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.
