Environment agency workers to walk out for four more days, says UNISON

Thousands of Environment Agency workers in England are to strike for four days over pay later this month, blaming government inaction for putting communities, waters and wildlife at risk, says UNISON today (Wednesday). Despite months of strikes and other action where workers have taken themselves off ‘on call’ incident response rotas, ministers have made no attempt to invite unions in for pay talks, says UNISON. The union’s latest action means staff working on coastal sea defences, protecting communities from floods, tackling water pollution, waste fires and fly-tipping will strike from 7pm next Friday (14 April). They will be out all that weekend until 7am on the Monday morning (17 April). Endemic low pay and uncompetitive wage rates mean the Environment Agency is struggling to hold on to experienced staff and recruit new employees. This growing staffing emergency means the Agency’s incident response and enforcement teams are already too thinly stretched to keep England’s waterways sewage-free and communities safe from harm, warns UNISON. The longer the government persists with its ‘do nothing’ approach to staffing problems at the Agency, the worse the situation will become, the union adds. Several recent environmental incidents, such as a huge fire at a textile factory in Mansfield and the Poole Harbour oil spill show how valuable Agency workers are in dealing with serious pollution events. But the government’s refusal to allow the Environment Agency to...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News Press release Donna Rowe-Merriman environment agency Source Type: news