Romec engineers start strike ballot

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/romec-e ... allot.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hundreds of engineers working for maintenance and facilities contractor Romec begin voting from today (Friday) on whether to strike against attacks on their job security.

As well as working for Royal Mail, the company has also provided similar services for several commercial customers, but, at the end of last year some of these contracts were abruptly terminated, potentially placing engineers' jobs in jeopardy.

There is a long-standing Managing Surplus Agreement (MSA) procedure, to which both the CWU and Romec have committed to, for addressing such situations fairly and in the interests of all, but according to CWU assistant secretary Ray Ellis, the company has so far refused to honour this obligation.


"Romec's behaviour defies belief," said Ray, accusing the contractor of "seeking to abuse TUPE legislation to force long-serving, loyal employees out of the company in order to avoid redeployment costs."

Rather than discuss the potential staff surplus with the union, as it is obliged to do under MSA, Romec unilaterally decided to allocate employees to "artificially constructed duties to enable them to be transferred out against their will or face being treated as having voluntarily resigned without compensation," Ray explained.


Initial talks with the company have failed to produce a solution and the union has been left with no alternative but to start a strike ballot in order to protect members' job security and defend the existing MSA procedures. Voting opens today (Friday) and closes a week tomorrow (25th) and the CWU is recommending a Yes vote.


Ray pointed out: "The MSA is the key agreement protecting our Romec members' job security and Romec's cynical attempts to bypass it show callous disregard to those employees directly affected and represent a threat to every Romec member.


"We are urging members to vote Yes to defend job security and protect our agreements."

[Red Robbo]

Do these engineers work in Mail Centres ?

[SpacePhoenix]

Do these engineers work in Mail Centres ?

They're not the engineers that fix the sorting machines, they're the ones that fix problems with the buildings, things like broken doors, toilets, sorting fittings, etc