Workers doing social repairs for Crawley Council have had enough. The two contractors, Mitie and Mears, are refusing to pay any sick pay whatsoever (despite other Mitie and Mears employees getting it as well as all council employees) – and they’ve not had a decent pay rise in 9 years, leaving their salaries at 28% below 2010 levels.
This is the first pay claim UNITE the Union have put in since winning a recognition agreement last year – funnily enough the two companies don’t want that agreement to roll over when they merge the contracts this year.
UNITE are now following their members wishes and balloting for industrial action as the only way to make the bosses see sense.