Bristol Water boss trousers more than half a million pounds while expecting pandemic heroes to take real terms pay cut
GMB members are Bristol Water will strike on Tuesday [April 6] unless the company ‘gets real’ on its pay offer.
The company has imposed a pay freeze and no increase to pension contributions, despite Bristol Water’s essential workers risking their health and that of their families to keep the taps on during the pandemic.
This is just an insult and our members are fed up with being treated the worst of all the UK’s water workers. They’ve pushed them too far this time. Bristol Water's management need to up their game, get real and offer a proper pay rise, or there’s a real risk their actions could further alienate staff and cause disruption to customers.
Tim Northover, GMB Regional Organiser
The company’s ‘underwhelming’ pay offer was rejected by GMB members – with 75% voting for strike action.
In 2019, Bristol Water offered the second worst pay out of all England and Wales’ Water authorities.
The 2020 pay deal is now set to be the worst whilst they have remained bottom of the league table for company pension contributions for some time.
Tim Northover, GMB Regional Organiser, said:
“This is just irresponsible behaviour from Bristol Water’s management team.
“Senior management are motivated by their own pay incentives and are driving down our members’ pay standard of living to pay for it.
“We have challenged the CEO on his position and behaviour and his response was to withdraw from talks altogether - which shows a total lack of accountability.
"His bonus for 2020/21 alone is £300,000 - on top of a £240,000 annual salary - yet our members are somehow expected to willingly accept a real-terms pay cut.
“After the worst pandemic since the Spanish flu, they should be bending over backwards to thank their key workers who have risked their health to keep the water flowing.
“This is just an insult and our members are fed up with being treated the worst of all the UK’s water workers. They’ve pushed them too far this time.
"It is also an insult to the public of Bristol to see individuals taking such advantage of running a monopoly business
“Bristol Waters management need to up their game, get real and offer a proper pay rise, or there’s a real risk their actions could further alienate staff and cause disruption to customers.”
