Only bare minimum work at Tata Steel Europe from June 16

Prepare for national day of strike on June 22; global union tells Mistry it's no way to deal with workers

Taking a tough stance on  the proposal to close the existing pension scheme at Tata Steel's operations in Britian, trade unions (TUs) representing the 17,000 workers there have decided to stop working overtime and will implement a 'work-to-rule' policy from June 16.

“Work to rule is the term we use when workers do the bare minimum needed at the facility. There is no significant contribution or effort put from their (workers') side to carry out any task,” Paul Reuter, national officer for steel at Unite, largest TU in Britain, told Business Standard. “This will be effective from June 16 if the management does not approach the unions for negotiations before that."

All the four unions — Community, UCATT, GMB and Unite (the latter represents around 6,000 workers) -- which had voted in favour of a strike had met on Monday to decide the next course of action.

The comoany says the pension scheme is short of £2 billion funds and needs to be closed, given the accumulated losses at Tata Steel Europe.

The unions plan to escalate the strike gradually. Reuter said. If things do not change by then, a 24-hour complete strike will carried out on June 22.

“Tata have given us no option. The company has not shown any willingness to return to meaningful negotiations to find an end to this dispute. An overtime ban and work-to-rule will cause massive disruption to Tata’s operations and severely limit production. The company could avoid this by returning to the table. In the meantime, all the unions will also be making preparations for a national day of strike action on June 22,” Roy Rickhuss, chair of the National Trade Union Steel Co-ordinating Committee, and general secretary of the Community trade union was quoted saying.

Last week, unions voted in favour of a strike after a ballot of workers was sought on the dispute. Tata Steel wants to replace the existing pension scheme with a “money purchase” one, in which employees, the government and the employer will make definite contributions. It also proposes to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65. Since according to the norms, unions have to take action within four weeks of closure of a ballot, Reuter said, a legal notice to the employer would be sent on Tuesday, stating these details.

Global union to Mistry
Separately, the IndustriALL Global Union, representing about 50 million workers in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors in 143 countries, has written to Tata Steel chairman Cyrus Mistry to intervene and find a fair solution to the conflict at its subsidiary in the UK.

Tata prides itself as the world’s most ethical company but its decision to shut down the British Steel Pension Scheme to future accrual means workers and their families, backbone of the company, will suffer financially in their retirement, said the union. This decision is in full contradiction with Tata’s own values. Plus, the refusal to engage with the unions in meaningful dialogue has meant steelworkers have no alternative but to take industrial action to defend their pension rights, it said.

"We truly hope that your rapid intervention will help avert a national strike in the steel industry," IndustriALL Global Union said in its letter. All the four TUs representing Tata Steel workers are affiliated to IndustriALL.

Tata response
Meanwhile, Tata Steel said it would soon be announcing new measures to lessen the impact of the proposed pension changes, "particularly on our longest-serving employees nearing retirement age", it stated.

“We hope that these important changes to our proposals will be welcomed by employees and that the TUs reconsider industrial action,” said a spokesperson.Reiterating the company had been trying to develop an affordable and sustainable pension scheme for  employees, Tata Steel said it was very disappointed by the announcement on strike and industrial action.

“At a time when the UK business as a whole continues to lose money and when key investments are needed to create a sustainable future for our business, we urge the unions and individual employees to think very carefully about the consequences of industrial action,” said the spokesperson.