OVER 550 ROMEC engineers were out on strike on Friday and yesterday in their dispute over Royal Mail and other major companies breaking their National Agreements.
In addition a month-long call-out ban began on Friday.
On the picket line outside the British Museum, striking CWU engineer Tony McHendry told News Line: ‘As part of the Building Services Installation we have a contract with the British Museum.
‘This involves providing lighting, ventilation, in fact everything to keep the building running.
‘We have been involved in all the major exhibitions including converting the round reading room to accommodate the Terracotta Army.
‘The main issue is that management are trying to bring in changes without agreement and agreements we have are being broken.
‘We have trackers in our vans and part of the agreement is that they are not used for disciplinary purposes.
‘There are cases where managers have trawled the data to use small discrepancies to victimise, discipline or sack staff.
‘The headquarters for ROMEC workers has been relocated but we have not been compensated for our additional travel time.
‘ROMEC is 51 per cent owned by Royal Mail and 49 per cent by Balfour Beatty, all the new managers seem to be from the Balfour Beatty side.
‘ROMEC want to change the business model to include more agency staff and to subcontract work out to other companies rather than using in-house labour.
‘If the company refuse to abide by their existing agreements and to negotiate properly then we will be looking to escalate the action.’
