British Gas engineers.

[Mottie]

What’s going on - 500 of them sacked for not signing new contracts? Is that right? Or fair?

 

[Deleted member 267285]

I believe it’s been coming for a while, they were pre-warned about losing their jobs, they’ve fought it “with” the Unions.

 

[motorbiking]

It depends.

less than 2 years service. Yep.
More than 2 years service. They can be offered statutory redundancy.

company just changes the job profile and invites applicants and serves notice of vulnerability. Apply or walk

they have been losing customers for years and keep trying to be a tech company

 

[EFLImpudence]

Do workers have to actually sign the new contract nowadays?

Never used to have to. If you work there those are the conditions.

 

[EddieM]

Do workers have to actually sign the new contract?

No one can force you to do that. But failure to do so will make you redundant.

 

[EFLImpudence]

That's not an answer.

Either it is compulsory or it is not.

 

[fillyboy]

My sympathy has been with the engineers for some time on this one. New contract?, don't like it? do one. I read yesterday that the new contract basically means 3 hours more per week and a lower overtime rate for weekends, I suspect there might be more to it. I'd prefer to see new employees on a new contract and the old timers see out their time on the old contract. British Airways (as a result of covid) have had redundancies and similarly, have been keen to lose the senior cabin staff on 'old contracts'.

On the other side of the coin, British Gas have been heamorrhaging customers for years and seen profits halve over ten years. At 40K a year it probably won't be too difficult to find replacement engineers.

 

[Dangee]

BG rates are shocking. No wonder boilers they “maintain” end up in this condition. No care taken, no attachment to the customer, just a numbers game.

This boiler was under a BG contract for 15 years & then condemned. Flue gas analysis was reading 3200ppm of CO. Anything above 250ppm is an alarm of a serious problem. That stuff blocking the flue didn’t build up overnight. Years & years of no maintainance.
The pump head they fitted prevented the display & casing from fitting properly.

 

[Bodd]

My advise is stay clear of BG

 

[Old Salt]

They got rid of a load in a similar manner in the mid 90’s design engineers and field guys.

 

[conny]

We had a similar scenario foisted on us a number of years ago when I worked in Liverpool. Take a 3% pay cut and sign a new contract or you would be deemed to have voluntarily handed your notice in, (NOT redundancy). Unions said it was legal because they had told us 3 months prior what they were going to do. We responded they had told us what they MAY CONSIDER doing. Some refused and claimed unfair dismissal but their cases never reached court. They settled out of court. The rest of us took the cut but within 12 months most of us had left and took our skillsets with us. New guys couldn't come up to the mark and 18 months later the branch closed completely.

 

[SirGalahad]

Free market. Deal with it.

 

[Dangee]

I’m not sure where BG go now with their maintenance contracts. The more cuts they make, the lower quality of staff (generally), the more likely to weasel their way out of repairing the boiler & the less care taken when servicing by said staff.
The higher the charges, the more likely customers will go elsewhere. They are in a real rut & the brand name is not what it once was.

 

[Notch7]

I would guess BG are now losing a lot of new installs to BOXT

 

[charliegolf]

I’m not sure where BG go now with their maintenance contracts.

They are using contractors round here at the mo. Must be killing them financially.