Dounreay workers overwhelmingly back strike action and have had ‘enough of the company’s games’
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Unite the union confirmed today (Friday, April 5) that its 460-strong membership employed by Nuclear Restoration Services Limited (NRS) based at Dounreay power station has backed strike action in a brewing pay dispute.
Unite’s members overwhelmingly backed strike action by 85.5 per cent on a high turnout of 82.3 per cent. The trade union has warned that strike action will be “inevitable” in the coming weeks and it said NRS has a “final opportunity” to resolve the dispute by making a revised pay offer to the workforce. The company has recently changed its trading name from Magnox Limited.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The Dounreay workforce has overwhelmingly backed industrial action because NRS has repeatedly failed to make them a fair pay offer. At the same time, the company has found the time to feather the nests of its directors.
“Unless NRS quickly gets back round the negotiating table to make our members an offer they deserve, then industrial action will be inevitable. Unite will fully support our members at Dounreay power station in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”
The pay dispute centres on “an inadequate pay offer of 4.5 per cent” effective from April 2023 which was previously rejected by 95 per cent in a consultative pay ballot. The offer amounts to a substantial real-terms pay cut, says the union, as the true rate of inflation, RPI stood at 11.4 per cent.
Unite’s NRS membership includes craft technicians, general operators, chemical and electrical engineers, and maintenance fitters and safety advisors.
Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, added: “The Dounreay power station workers have spoken loudly and clearly. Unacceptable pay offers by NRS will no longer be tolerated. The workforce is undertaking an extremely important job and they are experts in their field.
“NRS has basically strung our membership along since January 2023 and they have simply had enough of the company’s games. There is a final opportunity to make our members a serious offer or any industrial action will lie at the doors of the directors who have so richly remunerated themselves while ignoring the workforce.”
The remuneration package of the highest-paid NRS (formerly Magnox) director went up from £331,000 to £651,000 in March 2023, and the company paid dividends of £2.1 million in the same period.
