TV Licensing Christmas strike
13 December 2011
For immediate release
TV Licensing Christmas strike
Hundreds of TV Licensing workers will be on strike in the run-up
to Christmas next week in a long-running dispute over pay.
Capita - the company which has just won an eight year extension
to the TV Licensing contract and makes £1 million profit every
day - has refused to return to negotiations despite a week's
worth of strike action and clear dissatisfaction among its staff. A
pay offer of around 2.6 per cent was robustly rejected by workers,
many of whom earn little more than the minimum wage. The
Communication Workers Union has announced today (Tuesday) dates for
two weeks of further strike action running into the New Year.
CWU national officer Andy Furey said:
"Capita is the classic Scrooge - raking in profits, paying out
massive salaries and bonuses to senior executives and then treading
its low-paid staff into the floor.
"This company makes £1 million profit every day and
has just been awarded an eight-year extension to its BBC TV
Licensing contract; it can afford a decent pay rise for staff.
"Our members are facing higher food and fuel bills, not to
mention Christmas costs, so a pay offer at half the rate of
inflation is simply a pay cut.
"We're appealing to Capita scrooges to find some
Christmas spirit a return to pay talks to give their staff some
Christmas cheer. Strike action will continue in the New Year unless
Capita bosses change their stubborn stance."
Strike dates for "rolling" strikes (different
groups of workers out on separate days):
|
DATE |
WORKPLACE |
TIME |
|
Monday 19th December |
Bristol Mail Room |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Tuesday 20th December |
Bristol Temple Street |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Wednesday 21st December |
Darwen / Glasgow |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Thursday 22nd December |
Field members |
4pm - 9pm |
|
Friday 23rd December |
Bristol, including Mail Room / Darwen (including call centres) |
12:15pm - end of duty |
|
DATE |
WORKPLACE |
TIME |
|
Tuesday 3rd January |
Bristol Temple Street |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Wednesday 4th January |
Bristol Mail Room |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Thursday 5th January |
Bristol, Darwen and Glasgow Field members |
All day 4pm - 9pm |
|
Friday 6th January |
Darwen / Glasgow |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
|
Monday 9th January |
Bristol Mail Room |
Commencement of duty - 11am |
-ends-
Notes to editors:
- Capita staff working on the BBC TV Licensing contract haven't had a pay rise for almost two years. They rejected the original offer from Capita by 88 per cent in a consultative ballot.This was imposed in October.
- Staff have staged four walkouts - on 17th and 31st October and 18th and 30th November.
- CWU balloted 586 Capita workers. 301 members voted in favour of strike action, with 89 members voting against,giving a77.2 per cent yes vote on a 66.6 per cent turnout.
For more information please contact:
Sian Jones, Press Officer, t: 020 8971 7267, m: 0779 3314249 e: sbjones@cwu.org
