Forth Road Bridge workers eye strike vote

Published on Tuesday 11 March 2008 09:30

WORKERS on the Forth Road Bridge are set to vote on industrial action in a row over pay and conditions.

The abolition of tolls last month saw around 40 staff laid off and the start of a restructuring process for bridge authority FETA.

This has resulted in up to 20 workers said to be facing the possibility of less money and longer hours, sparking the ballot on possible strike action.

Bridge bosses today insisted contingency measures would be put in place to keep the bridge open, and hit out at union chiefs for considering industrial action before any decisions have even been made.

The affected workers are mainly from the traffic management and maintenance functions of FETA.

It is thought bridge bosses would have to hire outside contractors to carry out tasks, such as vehicle recovery during any strike action.

Permission to ballot members of the Unite union is expected next week with the results in the first week of April.

Sandy Smart, regional industrial organiser of the Transport and General section of the Unite union, said: "From what is being proposed, the right skills are not being matched to the right jobs in this restructuring.

"There is no point in having someone on boat duty if they can't swim or someone up on high if they are scared of heights. FETA are behaving awkwardly on this. They seem to be more interested in trying to appease politicians and unfortunately we are looking at some sort of industrial action.

"However, I must stress this will be a last resort and we will be trying to resolve this without taking this course of action."

Removal of the tolls last month saw both a cut in the bridge's budget and no future role for toll collectors. The bridge's workforce of around 100 was cut by about 40 per cent, including former bridgemaster Alastair Andrew.

One worker, who asked not to be named, said feelings were running high over the restructuring and said he thought most workers would vote for strike action.

He said: "We know there has to be changes but some people are facing more hours and less money.

"People are really angry about this because they can see it looks like we are getting a raw deal."

The cost of removing the toll booths on the Forth Road Bridge was around 1 million but the redundancy packages for staff, plus the legal costs associated with the move, are thought to have put the total bill at several million.

A spokesman for FETA said the organisation was currently mid-way through a consultation process with staff and the unions looking at various options.

He said: "The unions signed up to the principle that there would have to be a change when they agreed to the process and terms of reference for the organisational restructure before tolls were abolished. FETA has received no notification of any intention to ballot union members, but we'd frankly be astonished if industrial action was being threatened before any decisions have even been made.

"In the event of industrial action, contingency plans would be put in place to ensure that essential maintenance was not compromised and traffic continued to flow freely across the bridge."