GMB Slams ‘Callous’ Contractor

GMB Slams ‘Callous’ Contractor As 150 Construction Workers At Glasgow City Council Recycling Plant Served With The Sack For Christmas

Up to 150 construction and engineering workers on the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre project are facing the sack for Christmas following a dispute between their employer and the site’s main contractor.

Stunned workers arrived for their shift this morning (Thursday 8 December) only to find themselves subject to a lock out, having learned that the Glasgow City Council partnership firm Viridor had terminated the contract of their employer Interserve the previous day.

GMB Scotland has obtained copies of letters confirming that workers will receive just one week’s notice of termination of employment with no rights to any statutory redundancy pay.

The union will now lodge a collective appeal and grievance on behalf of its members affected and has called for Viridor to transfer the workers to the new sub-contractor.

GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Tony Dowling said: “This ranks among the most callous treatment of workers I’ve come across in years – our members have been kept totally in the dark while relations between Interserve and Viridor were collapsing.

Our members have family commitments and mortgages to take care of and they’ve arrived for work this morning only to be locked out of the site and then served with the sack by their employer just two weeks before Christmas.

The behaviour of Interserve is beneath contempt but Viridor should now do the right thing and ensure that the workers affected are transferred to whoever the new contractor of choice will be for the completion of the Polmadie site.

In the meantime, we will enact the available appeals processes on behalf of our members to protect their interests as best we can.”

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Contact: GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Tony Dowling on 07958 477859 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.