“British Gas staff start five-day strike in ‘fire and rehire’ row”, 07 January 2021

British Gas engineers have begun a five-day strike from Thursday in a dispute over new contracts.

Thousands of staff have walked out in response to an attempt by the firm to push through pay cuts by threatening to fire workers, union GMB said.

It accused Centrica owner British Gas of provoking the strike.

Centrica said it had done everything it could to avoid a strike, adding it would prioritise vulnerable households and emergencies during the walkout.

Justin Bowden, GMB national secretary, said … "The months and months of fire and rehire pay cut threats from British Gas CEO Chris O'Shea have provoked thousands and thousands of GMB engineers and call centre staff to strike, the only option left to them by a business that made £901m operating profit yet still plans to sack them because they won't accept the scale of cuts it demands," he added.

A Centrica spokeswoman said: "We've done everything we can with the GMB to avoid industrial action.

"While we've made great progress with our other unions, sadly the GMB leadership seems intent on causing disruption to customers during the coldest weekend of the year, amid a global health crisis and in the middle of a national lockdown," she said.

Almost 90% of GMB members voted for industrial action in a ballot of 9,000 members last month in response to an attempt by Centrica to cut some salaries by up to 10%, the union said.

In total, more than 7,500 staff could walk out, although Centrica said GMB had committed to ensure emergency callouts were not affected, adding that it also had contractors that it could call upon.