Members of the GMB Union at United Utilities will take strike action for 27 hours next week from 5 am on Friday 19th to 8am Saturday 20th February in a long running dispute over its pension scheme.

 The GMB said it is protesting over the company’s proposals to save money by introducing unilateral changes to the defined benefit (DB) pension scheme - United Utilities is planning for all staff to move from a defined benefit final salary pension to a defined contribution pension scheme after 31 March 2016.

Last month the Union announced that it was going ahead with a formal official strike ballot to ensure that the company gives an undertaking to make no changes to the scheme without negotiations. The ballot closed on the 26th January with 82.1% of members voting to take part in industrial action.

On Thursday 11th February GMB issued formal written notice to United Utilities that all its members will take strike action.  During the dispute there will be picket lines at 18 of the firm's main water and waste water treatment works, including Blackburn, Carlisle, Davyhulm,  Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, Oldham and Wigan.

On 26th January United Utilities offered to withdraw the current proposal on the basis that once the future service cost is known in early May, company proposals will be made and both parties will commit to conduct meaningful consultation on all potential options to address the cost issue, including changes to the DB scheme, closure of the DB scheme and mitigations.

The company asked GMB not to go ahead with the industrial action that the members had voted for.

GMB rejects offer to withdraw current proposal 

Eddie Parker, GMB regional officer, said:

“GMB rejected the offer on a number of reasons as follows:

The company have now reaffirmed with absolute clarity that they will not share the full actuarial valuation figures. This means that the “meaningful” talks referred to in the offer will be based on information that is 3 years old. What UU have offered instead is visibility on future service costs. However the company have now made it clear that this is on the proviso that such information will not be open to negotiation/consultation; instead access to this data will be granted solely for validation purposes.”

“Given the fact that the Unions will not be given the opportunity to influence these figures in an attempt to bring them down to what the company view as an acceptable level, either via access to the wider actuarial valuation or the limited future costs information, the GMB find this part of the offer unacceptable.”

 The GMB said that while UU have now temporarily withdrawn the proposal, this has come with a number of strings attached. The company have made it clear that the offer of withdrawal is on the basis that the Unions commit to talks which will include changes to the current pension scheme, up to and including closure.

According to the Union, when challenged further on this point the company confirmed that the withdrawal offer will be taken off the table in the event of the Unions failing to commit to such talks.

The GMB commented:

“Having only last week been provided with overwhelming support to protect the scheme in its current form, GMB believes that entering into such talks would be contrary to the clear mandate provided by our Members.”

“The company’s agenda appears to indicate that they will force closure rather than negotiate with a Union/s which are clearly committed to continuation of the DB scheme.”

“GMB consider that to enter into talks on the basis of the company’s offer would mean we become embroiled in discussions which will include closure of the scheme.”

“Since the unions will be provided with limited information and will not have the opportunity to influence future service costs, we believe it’s almost inevitable that these costs will come back in the 30%+ range. At this point we think it’s highly likely the company will simply state that the scheme is unaffordable and will point towards the prior formal commitments the Unions will be bound by as a result of this offer in order to force talks on potential scheme closure.”

The strike is the only industrial action GMB have planned at this point in time. GMB said it will continue to monitor the situation and will keep its Members informed of any developments.

A statement by the Union said that its Members are not in dispute with the customers so there is an agreed process should a major incident or other emergencies impacting on life and limb.

“GMB would like to stress that we are in dispute with the managers and shareholders of UU and not the customers. GMB has agreed an escalation process should there be a major incident such as the recent Cumbrian floods or other emergencies impacting on the life and limb of customers during the course of industrial action.”

“GMB understand the gravity of the current situation and will continue to make ourselves available in an effort to avoid strike action should the company wish to approach us with a view to talks on an acceptable solution.”

United Utilities has described the action as "disappointing".