Kentish Express Ashford & District
Gas workers protest on roundabout
Workers gather at Orbital Park roundabout
Gas workers took over a prominent roundabout to protest at what they say are unfair contract changes.
Engineers at British Gas set up a picket line on Monday at the Orbital Park junction, erecting banners and holding up placards.
The strike, partly organised by union GMB, was in opposition to new terms and conditions that employees had to agree to on December 23.
Among those on the picket line was Colin Maybee, who has worked at the company for 30 years.
The Willesborough resident said: “Basically, they changed our contracts without discussing it with the union, and it will remove or reduce a lot of the things which most benefit us as British Gas employees.
“In essence, one part of the contract allowed them to say to us ‘if you don’t accept these terms, we’re going to fire you in early 2021 and rehire you with our new terms.’
“After 30 years at British Gas, I’m always pretty proud to put on my uniform and do my best. It is hard to fight the hand that feeds you but sometimes it has to be done.”
The changes come amid the Covid-19 pandemic, through which My Maybee and his colleagues have worked.
The 46-year-old said: “I was pragmatic about it. When they asked people as we were coming out of the first lockdown whether anyone would be willing to work in Covid-positive homes there were only two of us on our patch who agreed.
“More people have agreed to since, and at the end of the day you just have to get involved.”
The Orbital Park roundabout protest came amid nationwide striking.
However, a British Gas spokesman said: “Only 52% of the eligible GMB membership has voted to support strike action - this is a very weak mandate - it is clear the GMB leadership does not have popular support across their membership for this course of action.
“More than 83% of our employees have accepted our employee changes to terms and conditions, including the majority of engineers, but a minority continue to refuse our reasonable asks to work an extra three hours per week (on top of 37 hours) in line with the rest of their colleagues, and to start their working day in the customers home, rather than in their own home.
“We’ve done everything we can with the GMB to avoid industrial action.”