Power workers threaten strike action over 'derisory' offer

Workers at power stations across the country are threatening to go on strike after what has been described as a 'derisory pay offer' by Scottish Power.
Power station workers across Scotland are threatening strike action over pay.Power station workers across Scotland are threatening strike action over pay.
Power station workers across Scotland are threatening strike action over pay.

Officials from the union Unite have told Scottish Power, that industrial action can be avoided but only if the company recognises that years of pay freezes need to be brought to an end with what they regard as a more reasonable pay offer.

The union has said that engineers at Scottish Power-Generation have had no pay increase for three years in a row. They have now voted decisively to reject the company’s current offer of individual £1000 lump sum payments, which will not be consolidated into current pay scales.

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Scottish Power has suggested that offer is a stop-gap until a longer term pay deal can be negotiated from next year although Unite has said that this has been proposed but not delivered in previous years.

Elaine Dougall, the union’s regional officer, said the company needs “to get real on pay.”

She continued: “Our members are not unreasonable. They have accepted a pay freeze for the last three years. No more. They want a proper offer. Not a thousand pound ‘take it or leave it’ throwaway.

“The big chiefs of Scottish Power at Iberdrola in Bilbao need to realise that the mood of the power station workers has reached the point of ‘enough is enough’. No expense was spared when it was a case of building the new company HQ in recent years. One way and another that must have cost near to £100 million. Now it’s a derisory grand for the workers who deliver the electricity that powers Iberdrola’s bottom line. It’s not on.”

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