Strike threat recedes at Anglian Water

London - The threat of strike action appears to have receded at Anglian Water after trade union officials advised members to comply with new working arrangements being introduced by the management.

Earlier this week, GMB said that hundreds of its members at  Anglian Water would be balloted for strike action. This followed the company’s decision to introduce shift and working time changes from 1 April, which the union claims could could mean a pay cut of up to £2,500 for workers.

Michael Ainsley, GMB organiser said: "There is no recession in the water industry and so to impose a major change to an agreement without seeking to negotiate its impact which could added up to a cut in pensionable wages by up to £2,500 a year for workers and the distress and inconvenience of industrial action for customers is new to me.”

For its part, Anglian Water said it wants to change the start time of some employees from 8am to 10am to better meet customer needs. A spokesman added that the company is not cutting wages and did not recognise the figures quoted by GMB.
 
“I am staggered at the inaccuracy of some of the GMB claims, said Andrew Mackintosh, head of group communications. "We are asking a tiny percentage of our  employees to move their working day by two hours every few weeks to help us visit customers at a more convenient time and use less contracted labour.
 
“Of more concern is the blind belief that there is no recession in the water industry.  We are not immune from what is happening to the economy. Only today we announced that our owners have injected £115 million into the business – this is additional money, not from customers, to help cope with the current economic situation.”