Unions walk out of Wiltshire Council 'Fire & Rehire' dispute meeting

GMB and other unions’ negotiators refused to continue talks, with a ‘gun to the head’

GMB and sister unions were last week dismayed by Wiltshire Council’s continued refusal to remove the threat of ‘Fire & Rehire’ and were forced to walk out of a negotiation meeting when Council bosses refused to budge.

‘Fire & Rehire’ is the controversial practice whereby an employer effectively terminates a worker’s contract in order to re-engage them on altered – and often inferior – terms and conditions.

The long-running dispute centres around the removal of contractual out-of-hours payments and has seen teams of social workers and parking wardens taking multiple days of action.

The Council intends to cancel these key workers’ contracts in order to push through these contractual changes, which will result in a salary reduction of up to 20 per cent in some cases.

Previous council tactics to avert strike action include an email from the former CEO which was deemed unlawful by an Employment Tribunal and was immediately followed by his resignation.

David McMullen, GMB Regional Organiser said:

“As we always do, GMB approached this important meeting with professionalism and the aim to resolve this long, drawn-out dispute.

“The red line for our members however is that they cannot negotiate with an employer who insists on retaining the threat of dismissal, a real ‘gun to the head’ tactic.

“If Wiltshire Council continue to refuse to remove this threat, our members have showed repeatedly their appetite for a fight.

“Wiltshire Council needs to mirror our sensible approach to negotiation, remove the threat of Fire & Rehire and enter talks with the aim to actually settle them.”