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British Gas Faces Strikes in Response to ‘Fire and Rehire’ Proposals
Posted on: 26th August 2020 8:46pm
In a ballot carried out by the GMB union consulting its 10,000 British Gas members on the necessity of industrial action, 95% of respondents voted in favour of strikes against the company. This new turn of events comes in light of British Gas’s proposed fire and rehire scheme. The GMB union claims the energy giant is seeking to sack a considerable amount of its workforce, in order to then reinstate them on new contracts with less favourable terms and conditions.
In June of this year, Centrica reported that it was seeking to restructure its operations with a more customer focused approach. As part of this there are plans for 5000 redundancies, as well as changes to contractual terms, conditions and pay. The British Gas parent organisation stated to trade unions that it would indeed give some employees a notice of termination for their contracts, before offering a new contract with updated terms for the same job, yet that these new terms and conditions would be aligned with the market average. Centrica did also state no changes to base pay will be instated and that pensions were also to be protected during the restructure.
Justin Bowden, national secretary of the GMB union stated in response that ‘Centrica bosses are holding a box of matches and threatening to set fire to the terms and conditions of this loyal and dedicated workforce. It’s a complete and utter betrayal of the British Gas brand… The company have already burnt through the confidence of its staff. Today’s 19 to 1 vote demonstrates GMB members are not prepared to tolerate fire and rehire threats’
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Lloyds Group Plc Reduce Current Account Interest Rates
Posted on: 19th August 2020 8:35pm
The major British financial and banking institution Lloyds Banking Group Plc is to reduce interest rates for both those holding current accounts with Lloyds Bank and its subsidiary, the Bank of Scotland. These cuts will be in effect from October 1st. The reductions to interest rates follow a trend of cuts across the market this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and its concurrent political and economic effects.
Those holding a Club Lloyds account, or a Vantage account from the Bank of Scotland currently earn 1% annual equivalent rate (AER) interest on balances between £1 and £3,999.99. The AER on these current accounts is to be slashed down to 0.6%. For customers holding accounts with balances of between £4000 and £5000, the interest rate will be decreased from 2% to 1.5% after October 1st. These rate reductions equate to a loss in real terms of around £25 interest annually for the maximum account value.
Lloyds Bank and the Bank of Scotland are cutting down rates to the bare minimum, similar to many of their competitors such as NatWest and HSBC. These drops come after the Bank of England dropped the base rate to as low as 0.65% in a series of successive cuts throughout the year. It is currently unbeknownst as to whether or not the base rate will decrease further, although it is not out of the question as economic depression looms. What is clear however, is that these cuts from both banks certainly won’t afford any admiration from their customers. Something which Lloyds Bank and the Bank of Scotland ought to be seeking to achieve considering they both were ranked relatively low in a recent survey on customer satisfaction for all major banks in the UK. With 40% and 42% of respondents stating they would not recommend the services of Lloyds Bank and the Bank of Scotland respectively.
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E.ON to Pay £12m Fine for Mis-selling
Posted on: 16th May 2014 2:43pm
E.ON, one of the country's "Big Six" Energy firms have been fined a record £12m, the largest single penalty to date by the energy regulator Ofgem. This fine comes after an investigation discovered poor phone and door-to-door selling practices. The final bill for E.ON could reach as much as £20m with compensation payments likely to reach £8m added to the imposed £12m penalty.