Fujitsu workers in North to be balloted on strike action
Thursday, October 08, 2009 - 01:25 PM
Members of the Unite trade union in the North employed by electronic giant Fujitsu are joining union colleagues across the UK in a ballot on industrial action, it was announced today.
The union, which represents over 1,500 of the 12,500 employed by the company, called the ballot on jobs, pay and pensions, claiming proposed pension scheme changes would reduce the total pay packets of each employee by around 20%.
The union said it had given the IT services company seven days notice of the ballot which would begin next Monday, with the result expected at the end of the month.
The ballot follows a previous vote for industrial action as part of a UK-wide consultative ballot against a proposal to close the company’s main final salary scheme and impose a pay freeze.
Some 97% voted for action short of a strike and 87% in favour of strike action.
The union said around 4,000 workers in the main defined pension scheme would be hit by the company plan to close the scheme to future accrual.
It said Fujitsu intended to force the measure through by dismissing employees after the end of a consultation period this month and offering them re-employment on new contracts which were unchanged, except in relation to pensions.
In August Fujitsu announced plans for 1,200 redundancies – however it said the 490 workers in Belfast and 155 in Derry would be largely unaffected.
Joanne McWilliams, Unite regional industrial officer with responsibility for IT and finance in the North, said: “Unite members are asking why they should lose their jobs and tighten their belts when last year the company paid out about £150m (€163m) to shareholders and around £1.6m (€1.74m) to two directors as compensation for loss of office.
“The company imposed a pay freeze on British staff earlier this year just a week before it was due to take effect, withdrawing promised pay rises to employees.”
She said Fujitsu was a highly profitable company and union members were insisting it must “treat them fairly and increase pay, provide decent pensions, and consult meaningfully to minimise job losses and avoid compulsory redundancy.”
