Around 500 Scottish Water workers are being balloted for industrial action over a bitter pay dispute with bosses. Strike action could directly impact the publicly-owned firm’s ability to respond to water leakages and flooding.
The trade union Unite say a basic pay offer of 3.4% in October was rejected by the membership. As part of the dispute, they are raising the £483,000 pay package enjoyed by Scottish Water chief executive Alex Plant.
As revealed by the Record last year, over half of the remuneration deal was covered by salary but he also received £83,000 in “benefits”. The biggest chunk of his benefits was £73,000 in “relocation” to help smooth the path for him to live in Scotland.
He benefited from £2,000 to secure an “immediate temporary residence”, a £29,000 “accommodation allowance” and £42,000 towards Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT).
LBTT is paid on property purchases and replaced stamp duty after a decision of the Scottish Parliament.
Industrial action could involve strike action, working to rule and working only to contracted hours.
An increased offer has since been tabled by Scottish Water.
Sam Ritchie, Unite industrial officer, said: “Scottish Water’s executive team appear too preoccupied with awarding themselves bonus and pension top-ups to make our members a decent pay offer: “Unite has no option but to ballot our members on industrial action because Scottish Water is ignoring our members’ reasonable demands.
“To add insult to injury, there is a botched job evaluation process ongoing which is leading to many of our members losing pay through being downgraded. That is unacceptable and we will fight back against this culture of arrogance at Scottish Water.”
A Scottish Water spokesperson said: “Our proposal for an annual pay award for 2024/25 builds on the uplift and significant improvement to terms and conditions agreed last year with the trade unions.
“We are disappointed that the unions have not put our increased offer to their members and believe that balloting for industrial action is premature. We encourage the unions to engage with us.”
On CEO pay, the spokesperson said: “Scottish Water is publicly owned and commercially operated and executive salaries – among the lowest of any comparable company in the UK – are agreed by the Scottish Water board and the Scottish Government and are based on market factors to ensure we have the right people leading our business.”
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