INDUSTRIAL action at several leisure centres will begin tomorrow.
More than 120 workers in Wigan - including fitness instructors and swimming pool attendants - are being urged by the GMB union not to work overtime in a `work-to-rule' protest.
It follows a ballot in which 95 per cent of members voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay and contracts with the centre's operators, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust.
Facilities and services at Ashton Leisure Centre, Hindley Pool, Hindley Sports Centre, Leigh Indoor Sports Centre, Robin Park Arena and Sports Centre, Wigan International Pool, Tyldesley Pool and Howe Bridge Sports Centre will be affected. No date for the action to end has been revealed.
The union has accused the trust which took control of the centres from the council three years ago of breaking a promise it made safeguarding workers' terms and conditions.
A new pay rate has been announced, removing rates paid for weekend and overtime working. The union said workers could lose £3,000 a year. Staff have received letters informing them they would be dismissed on May 5 if they did not accept the new rates. Workers accepting the deal would be re-hired.
GMB spokesman Terry Mellor said he had written to trust bosses asking for a meeting.
He said: "These leisure centres are often run on overtime and goodwill. Unfortunately our members have little goodwill left because the company has dismissed them and only offered to re-engage them if they accept the inferior terms and conditions."
The trust said the new terms and conditions were being introduced to ensure services remain sustainable and all staff were being offered a `substantial' two-year compensation package.
Chief executive Rodney Hill said: "We are very disappointed that the unions and staff have decided to take this action. However, we are fully prepared for the implications.
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Leisure workers' fury
April 03, 2008
Showing comments 1 to 3 and replies | View All
M C Spanner (03/04/2008 at 09:49)
Royal Mail again, The Tube, Teachers and now this.
I am getting that 1979 deja vu when an unelected PM lost control of the people who funded his party and people were so sick of all the strikes that they kicked him and his party out for a generation.....
PW, Manchester (03/04/2008 at 10:43)
I feel there is going to be a repetition of the late 1970's. When people look in their wallets to see what's left after paying everything out, they will be very disappointed, and will wonder why they are working their butts off. Yet, the Government keeps sponging more and more from the electorate to fund superfluous and interfering policies. And to generously support the non-productive elements of society and to fund their ridiculous immigration policies. I see things going off with a great bang within the next 12-18 months. New Labour are the architects of their own destruction.
Mark Spencer, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. (03/04/2008 at 11:02)
"The trust said the new terms and conditions were being introduced to ensure services remain sustainable"
A translation of that: Energy costs have gone up by 50%, other cost have risen by massive amounts, we are unable to do anything about those, so we will try and claw some monies back of the workers.