As their shifts come to an end, non-industrial workers at the yard will walk out in the first of a series of 3½-hour stoppages because of management’s decision to withhold performance payments from satisfactory performers – the vast majority of workers.
Prospect General Secretary Paul Noon and the 15-strong Branch Council will greet workers as they leave the yard by car via Camel’s Head Gate from 11am to midday.
The action follows months of negotiations after Devonport Management Limited’s decision to impose a new pay structure at the yard which reserves pay progression payments solely for good or excellent performers. The previous progression system was unilaterally terminated by the company in 2004.
Prospect Negotiations Officer Jim Cooper said he had never known members so angry. "Members have voted for this action by 17 to 1. The company admits that the market rate for jobs is halfway up pay bands. But satisfactory performers with 20 or more years’ experience will be stranded at the bottom of their band with no chance of ever getting near that rate."
The crisis in industrial relations at Devonport will be the first challenge to face the yard’s new owners, Babcock International, who took over the yard this week. Cooper said: "This issue presents a magnificent opportunity for the new owners to get to grips with all that has gone wrong at DML in the recent past."
Cooper and the Prospect branch council have already offered to meet Babcock’s Chief Executive and Human Resources Director to seek an early resolution to the dispute.
The threat of industrial action did persuade DML to make a marginal improvement to their previous pay proposals, but again this was reserved for good or excellent performers.
The action by non-industrial workers will bring all work at the yard to a halt as the industrial workforce cannot work unsupervised. However, Cooper stressed that Prospect was not seeking to cripple the yard’s work programmes and that full arrangements had been agreed with management for the provision of emergency cover.