British Gas strikes back on today as ongoing talks falter

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British Gas will pay out £1.7m after the energy supplier failed to inform hundreds of thousands of customers that it had changed prepayment supplier.
People with energy prepayment meters in their homes have been nearly twice as likely to dip into debt.

Around 7,000 British Gas engineers will be on strike for four days until 23 February, protesting the company’s “fire and hire” plan as ongoing talks between the GMB union and Centrica’s British gas falter.

This is the second out of three lots of planned four day strikes, beginning on 12 February, 19 February and 26 February.

Workers have claimed Centrica is attempting to push through pay cuts by threatening to “fire and rehire” workers. Almost 90 per cent of GMB union members voted for industrial action against the firm in December.

The GMB union had suspended the latest four-day strike action last week to allow talks to proceed between GMB and British Gas at ACAS.

Justin Bowden, GMB National Secretary said: “GMB entered into these ACAS brokered talks in good faith, but a deal is only possible if the company takes its fire and rehire plan off the table.

“After 18 days of strikes, more than 210,000 homes are in a backlog for repairs and 250,000 planned annual service visits have been axed. The company is misleading the media that it is catching up after 24 hours.”

“GMB’s executive has determined action could continue to mid-April in this deadlocked dispute,” he added.

Two weeks ago the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica Chris O’Shea was “sent excrement” in the post amid the ongoing conflict over “fire and rehire”.

O’Shea said: “Undoubtedly what I’m asking people to do is difficult, I won’t shy away from that. However, my view is that I would rather do everything in my power to save the 20,000 jobs that we’ve got.”