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Agreement could end Romec dispute

24 August 2011

Some 600 Romec engineers will begin voting soon on a draft agreement which could bring their long-running dispute with the company to an end.

A row over management's use of information from vehicle trackers and hand held devices had sparked a ban on overtime, a boycott of stand by and callout duties and several days of strike action.

The action, which was solidly supported by the determined work force, brought Romec bosses back to the negotiating table where, after lengthy talks between CWU negotiators and company bosses last week, a draft agreement was reached on Monday and has now been approved by the union's executive committee.

CWU assistant secretary Ray Ellis, who led the union's negotiating team, explained that that the draft agreement "limits the use of information from both the GPS tracking devices and the MDU handheld units to weekly reports and speeding alerts.

"If the company wants to produce any other reports, then this is subject to consultation with the union," he added.All existing disciplinary cases that arose from the problems around this equipment will be subject to ACAS-supervised reviews, full recompense has been made for related deductions of pay and a new consultative forum, consisting of senior figures from both the union and the company, is to be set up with the aim of avoiding future disputes.

"As well as providing what we feel is a satisfactory resolution to the problems around the tracker devices, this draft agreement also includes a solution on start times which reduce maximum travel time to and from work to 30 minutes each way and bonus payments, which include a £1,000 lump sum payment to all engineers in the units involved" Ray continued.

"Now that the executive has approved the package, we will be holding briefing sessions with members and then moving to a full ballot in early September, in which we will be urging members to vote Yes.

"None of this would have been achieved without the solid support members showed for the action that was taken and CWU members at Romec are to be commended for their unity, solidarity and determination," he concluded.



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