Unions join forces for Environment Agency strike next week  

Thousands of Environment Agency employees belonging to UNISON and Prospect are to take strike action next week in the growing dispute about pay, say the unions today (Tuesday). Staff working in river inspection, flood forecasting, coastal risk management and pollution control will stage a 12-hour strike on Wednesday (8 February) starting at 7am. In addition, for 12 hours either side of the walkout, Environment Agency employees will escalate their ongoing work to rule by withdrawing from incident response rotas, say the unions. This action short of a strike starts at 7pm on Tuesday, and kicks in again immediately at the end of the strike for another 12 hours, concluding at 7am on Thursday. During these hours, there’ll be fewer experienced Environment Agency staff to provide cover if an incident occurs, say the unions. However, where there’s a genuine threat to life or property from something like a major flood, officers will step in as emergency ‘life and limb cover’ has been agreed with Agency managers. Environment Agency staff belonging to UNISON took strike action earlier this month (18 January). Now their colleagues who are in Prospect will join them for the first joint strike. Employees in both unions have been working to their contracts and refusing to volunteer for overtime for several weeks. And for short periods around the festive season they withdrew from incident rosters. The unions are critical of the government for not doing anything to end the dispute....
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News Press release environment agency Source Type: news