Posted on: 25 March 2025

• NJC 19/3/24 Membership update

The National Committee reps met with he company as part of the quarterly NJC to discuss ongoing concerns within the business, following on from the pay negotiations and successful pay ballot. The company have confirmed that the pay will be implemented in the May payroll and will be backdated to the 1^st March 2025.

• Business overview

There has been a new CEO appointed and whist he is in the transition period there is no official update on the direction of the company.

Argon shortages impacted in January & February but has recovered and looking positive for March. Overall volumes have been struggling but this should level out soon. Plants are staring to run more consistently which will have a knock-on impact to the bay sites.

• Recognition agreement

There are a couple of updates re changes following the pay negotiations, once the tracked changes are received then the agreement can be signed by the National Officer.

• PPE

Following the NJC previous and the request for appropriate PPE, orders have now been placed and Walkden has already taken place.

• PACK devices

The team is working on the PACK devices as part of the global issue, this work is still ongoing, and an upgrade is due shortly, but no date has been given as confirmation. The company know how frustrating this is and will keep chasing to get a date.

• Security

An IT upgrade took place, and this has caused problems across the sites, new circuit boards have been ordered to ensure the sites are secure. The NC asked for insurance to cover people’s property, the company have stated they won’t insure anyone’s personal property but will get issue resolved as a priority and put measures in place to make property secure.

• Christmas working

This was asked at the previous NJC to allow closure over 3 days, the company have said they will not agree as the competitors are open and would potentially lose business. They said they would only operate with skeleton staff, and it should only be staff that want to work those dates. The sites know now what and who they want to work so plans should be put in place asap and staff updated to allow for the time off.

• Walkden

Loading and unloading spreadsheet figures.

Recording of pallets, the company have said there is no need for these to be recorded, only the times should be recorded, and they are only looking at times, they know there is a problem with the system where its not pulling all the information through. Until this is fixed there is no concern over this being recorded as this has been accounted for.

• Forklift Truck

The diesel trucks are having major problems, and the electric one is not charging correctly. This is causing problems as sometimes only 1 truck can be used. This needs to be raised with procurement the issues that occurring as well as taking up with Linde.

• Bardon

Forklift Truck

Seating problems, there was a trail of a new seat, but no feedback has been given. This needs to be fed back up to procurement, so that they can go back to Linde to get resolutions.

Sort plate – need to have heating curtains put in place. They thought this was already in place as part of the project, they will check on this and feedback.

• Solar panels

Could this be investigated as a possible for helping to save money for the site. This will be on the agenda to investigate, but the cost of installation is prohibitive and why it has not been implemented before.

• AOB

Bardon has been selected to trial a new priority cannister filling system. This is in the design process and visits to the site will be taking place over the next few weeks to get more information to feed into the design process.

GILL OGILVIE

NATIONAL LEAD ORGANISER

GMB PRIVATE SECTOR SECTION

Posted on: 5 March 2025

Dear GMB Members,

We wanted to confirm to you the outcome of the ballot regarding this year’s pay claim.

Members voting in favour = 95.55%

Members voting against = 4.45%

Therefore, this year’s pay offer has been accepted. Thank you to everyone who took part in the process and I shall now notify the company on behalf of the national committee of the results.

Yours,

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 12 February 2025

Dear Members,

The GMB NNC have raised with the company about drivers rest breaks being interrupted by the company and as such interrupting members legal entitlement to have an uninterrupted rest break. This is 11hours or 9 hours voluntary up to 3 times per week.

This has been raised as we have had members that have stated they have been contacted during their rest breaks for work purposes. This can be from a text message to a phone call, this is illegal, even if you have given permission. We are really concerned as there has been an increase in incidents nationwide, that if a member is involved in an accident, they may be subject to a disciplinary and or legal action, especially if there is a police/DVSA investigation.

We need to reiterate to members that you cannot volunteer to be contacted outside your working hours, and we understand that this may be an inconvenience for some members who prefer to operate this way, but we have to ensure that you are all fully protected and ensure the company are doing what they need to do legally.

The company have confirmed that their process to contact a driver is during working hours only and on a works mobile phone not a personal one. They also support our approach and want members to contact them if this happens, they will also be issuing a note to the management teams.

We will be doing some more work with the company to ensure that best practice is put into place, and we will need members to let us know and the employer if you are contacted. If this is your line manager or scheduler then please report to the next person in charge, if in doubt please speak to your local rep. Legally if you are contacted after you have finished work e.g. finish at 3pm and contacted at 6pm then you are legally entitled to take your 11 hours rest break from 6pm as your break was interrupted.

If you have given your personal mobile number or home number to anyone in the company other than for purposes of your HR records, then you need to inform them to remove your details immediately. The only people that have your personal details is the HR department and this is for employment purposes only.

We need members to do everything they can to ensure that this is implemented, and we will hold management to account if it’s not being done.

Yours on behalf of the collective NNC’s

GILLIAN OGILVIE

GMB NATIONAL LEAD ORGANISER

Posted on: 20 January 2025

Dear Members,

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS FOR BULK DRIVERS ONLY. If you have received this and aren’t a bulk driver, apologies this was sent to you by mistake so please ignore.

The results of the ballot for Air Products Bulk Drivers has now closed and the results are:

50.833% to accept

48.33% to reject

0.833 abstain

We can confirm that the pay offer is now accepted by a simple majority and this now concludes the outstanding pay for 2024. We will confirm with the company when this is expected to be received by members and we thank you for your participation. The national and workplace reps will be in touch shortly to discuss other issues affecting members that have arisen from visits during the pay talks.

Yours,

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 13 January 2025

Dear GMB Member

The consultative ballot for the Sleeper Cab dispute has now closed and the results show that we are unable to run an industrial action ballot on this issue due to the turnout and response received.

We are unable to take any further action as all avenues have been explored, we now be closing the dispute and bring an end to the complaint. I know that some of you will be really disappointed with this but as a democratic union we are governed by the membership response and it would not be in anyone’s interest to pursue industrial action based on the results.

If you are suffering from an injury or physical limitation as a result of the sleeper cabs, then we need to advise you to keep raising this with the employer directly on an individual basis and go through the grievance process, please keep your rep informed so they can support you. In addition, you may also be able to bring about personal injury claims through our legal team at Unionline and these can be contacted on the following number 0300 333 0303 who will make an assessment of your claim.

Yours,

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 29 July 2024

Dear Members

The ballot has now closed and the result is that members have voted in favour of accepting the pay offer of 4% and a reduction in the working week of 30 mins with no reduction in earnings from the pay anniversary.

The results were

100% turnout

75

88% voted to Accept

12% voted to Reject

We will now inform the company of the result and thank you for your participation in the ballot.

Yours on behalf of the national committee

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 26 July 2024

Dear Members,

The ballot has now closed and the result is that members have voted in favour of

accepting the pay offer of 4% from the pay anniversary.

The results were

92% turnout

77% voted to Accept

23% voted to Reject

We will now inform the company of the result and thank you for your participation in the

ballot.

Many thanks,

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 10 July 2024

Dear Members

We have today held our preliminary pay talks with the company, in which we presented your claim based on 10% increase across the board.

Disappointingly, the company have presented an offer which was way below even our expectations. We have told the company this would be an insult if this was put formally and have asked them to reconsider their points.

They have agreed to reconvene talks in September with a revised offer that we hope can be shared with yourselves and shows the seriousness of what you believe you are worth as an Air Products employee.

Yours on behalf of your NNC.

GILLIAN OGILVIE

GMB NATIONAL LEAD ORGANISER

Posted on: 5 July 2024

Dear members

We wanted to update you following the collective grievance meeting held on Friday 21^st June. We met with the company to go through your concerns surrounding the safety of the sleeper cabs and your ongoing welfare.

We presented the arguments that the cabs were not fit for purpose and showed them directly the constraints members face when having to use the vehicles, along with the associated health concerns and potential injuries. We made the company aware that no risk assessment has been conducted on the vehicles or any consultation with the union to sign off these modified cabs. We questioned whether Volvo would uphold the warranty of the cabs as they were designed as Day cabs and not for sleepers.

Due to the seriousness of drivers facing sleep deprivation as a direct result of staying in these cabs we stated that VOSA and the HSE should also be made aware. We felt the company listened to our arguments and understood the seriousness, we then requested for the company to uphold the ‘status quo’ of providing hotel accommodation to be put back into place until the outcome of the grievance, we felt that this was a reasonable request and suitable alternative.

It was disappointing that the company have decided to ignore our request and have refused to put alternative arrangements in place whilst the grievance is ongoing.

We are advising members to record in the accident books every head bump, ache & pain, sleepless night etc from staying in these cabs, so that there is an accurate record in case you have to make legal claims in the future. Also, the hierarchy of the company will start taking a notice if the accident and near miss stats start to increase. Our legal team are looking into what rights you have in relation to being put in direct and imminent danger, and we will come back to you with further advice on what you can and cannot do. We will be issuing you all surveys to complete regarding the impact on your bodies using these cabs and we will also be recording a database of any MSD (Muscular Skeletal Disorder) impact so if there is long term injury then it is recorded for you to seek compensation in the future. Please keep an eye on your emails and inform your colleagues of this, they will need to be in the GMB for the records to be taken.

The next steps will be awaiting the outcome of the grievance and it is at this point we will be come back to yourselves to inform you of the outcome and if it is needed a further escalation. All members will be fully consulted over the outcome so please make sure that your email addresses and phone numbers are up to date, if you are aware of someone not in the union and they are using these cabs, please share this email and urge them to join the union in getting everyone’s safety protected.

Yours

On behalf of the National Committee

Gill Ogilvie

National Lead Organiser

GMB Private Sector Section

Posted on: 22 December 2020

“Existing measures (e.g. social distancing, ventilation, hand hygiene and mask usage) remain important, but given the increase in risk associated with the new variant, strengthening the measures taken may be needed”

This means that:

• Risk assessments need to be reviewed and revised – the risk has increased (as virus is more infectious), so the full set of measures now need to be implemented to the fullest.
• The risk assessment will look similar – risk ratings should be higher numbers; colours switch from yellow/orange to red; list of measures should be longer and more detailed.

Many essential workplaces will have these in place but to remind everyone, in particular those measures in bold which are likely to be more relevant to factories.

Measures 1

• Every worker who can work from home must do so
• All Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (Shielding) workers must remain at home

• Standards of ventilation should be the highest achievable as per HSE/CIBSE/REHVA requirements
• Social distancing must be rigorously adhered to in all areas including communal areas, common parts and canteens.

Measures 2

• Welfare facilities must be provided to ensure that hand washing can be maintained.

• Hygiene standards must be the highest achievable in terms of cleanliness and frequency of cleaning
• Teams should be organised into the smallest units possible to minimise cross-exposure. Workers should remain in these teams with no intermingling as far as possible.
• Working patterns should be organised to minimise numbers in the workplace to fewest needed at any given time.

Measure 3

• All requirements for PPE and face coverings must be met in full, with access to supplies as needed.

• Every worker who is in a group identified at being at higher risk from Covid-19 (older workers; pregnant workers; BAME workers; disabled workers; workers with underlying health conditions) should be individually assessed and suitable additional measures implemented.
• All workers who are required to self-isolate must be able to do so without fear of any detriment – loss of pay; loss of holiday; disciplinary action.

PUTTING IT INTO ACTION

• Workplace Inspections, floor walks etc., daily if possible

• Daily H&S Meetings on performance and local infection rates
• Full Consultation on all Covid matters
• Facility Time/Time Off with Pay for these activities.
• Effective communication will be key to managing this period of high risk, and consultation structures will help to aid this.

Eamon O'Hearn

GMB National Officer

Posted on: 6 October 2022

Dear Members,

Thank you to all members for voting on the recent pay offer below:

FULL AND FINAL OFFER

• Year-1 – 9% on basic & flow-through to allowances;
• Year-2 – minimum of 3% up to 6%, on basic & flow-through to allowances, with final award linked to RPI average (July 22 to June 23);
  • If, RPI average or Inflation* is higher than 6% then Air Products, NNC & GMB will commit to review and discuss any changes required to maintain driver pay in upper quartile.
• 2-year Night-time derogation.
• Bank suspended for 2-years
• Driver bonus amendment;
  • Compliance = 0 (zero) to 0.05;
  • Efficiency = 82 to 92 (Avg ‘Apr-Jun’ = 97);
  • Safety = 100 unchanged

*Inflation is ‘CPI & CPIH’ mid-point for June 2023 using ONS data available on or around 19th July 2023.

The offer has been accepted by members in the ballot and will be implemented in due course by the Company.

Once again thank you for voting in support of the offer as recommended.

Yours in union,

Eamon O'Hearn

GMB National Officer

Posted on: 25 July 2022

Dear Member,

In 2021 members accepted the following 2-year offer:

1. Year 1 - 1.6% on base salary and allowances;

2. Year 2 - 2.4% or if RPI average July 21 to June 22 is higher, then RPI will be honoured (minus 0.1% differential for no NTD) on base salary and allowances;

3. Job share arrangements – ‘Job-Share’ policy to go live by 1 January 2022;

4. Replacement of the Banked Hours System to be implemented 1 October 2021;

5. In the new working arrangements, overtime will be paid daily after 9.4 hours plus break

6. Alignment to handbook terms for annual leave effective from 1 Jan 2022, with entry level from 26 days moving to 30 days after 5 years’ service.

To confirm that following the release of the June RPI figures the average for the previous 12 months has come to 7.8%, minus NTD of 0.1%, meaning drivers will receive an increase of 7.7% on base salary and allowances, in addition to securing daily overtime last year and enhanced leave.

We hope this goes some way to helping members and your families with the current cost of living squeeze.

Eamon O'Hearn

GMB National Officer

Posted on: 29 December 2020

Dear GMB Member,

Firstly wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy new year.

Thank you to members who voted in the recent ballots, it’s vital that you have your say.

Please see below the results of the ballots for Bay Operators and Packaged Gas Drivers:

• Bay Operators
• Packaged Gas Drivers

We will be convening NNC meetings in the new year to discuss the results and will be in touch with members following that.

Once again thank you and stay safe.

Eamon O’Hearn

GMB National Officer