by Keith Richmond
THE GMB’s central executive council has given the go ahead for a strike ballot over job cuts at Thames Water and threats by the company to outsource work to India.
The privatised public utility wants to make 282 workers redundant – the latest in a long line of job cuts over the years – and has threatened staff at its call centre in Swindon that unless they agree to family-unfriendly changes in working hours their jobs will be moved abroad.
Mick Rix, the union’s national officer, said: “The council expressed extreme anger at the bullying methods of Thames Water and gave authority to ballot members for strike action. The next step is a shop stewards’ meeting to discuss a timetable.
“Thames Water has given the excuse of the recession. Where is the recession in the water industry?”
Thames Water is Britain’s biggest water company with 5,000 employees and 13.5 million customers in London and the south east.
It was bought for £8 billion by the Australian bank Macquarie which has been criticised for treating the company as a “cash cow” while offering a poor deal to customers and workers alike.
The proposed industrial action comes at a difficult time for the privatised water companies which are under fire for promising to put up water charges way ahead of the rate of inflation.
Water bills are set to soar by up to five per cent above inflation for the next five years which will cripple families hit by the recession.
Ofwat, the industry regulator, will announce in the autumn how much the companies will be allowed to charge between 2010 and 2015.
