Environment Agency staff to strike for four days

Staff at the Environment Agency (EA) are to strike for four days from next week after negotiations over pay and working conditions broke down.

It comes as enforced pay rises had to be issued to some workers this week to avoid the EA being in breach of minimum wage laws that made £10.42 the minimum hourly rate from 1 April.

Thousands of workers will take part in industrial action including incident response teams for water pollution, flooding and coastal defences as well as fly-tipping from 14 to 17 April.

“Hourly rates are so low, some staff had to be given an emergency pay rise at the start of the week or their employer would have been in breach of minimum wage laws,” Unison head of environment Donna Rowe-Merriman said.

She said the government’s approach to environmental policy of “all talk and very little action” needs to change and called for a properly staffed EA to protect the natural world.

A pay increase of 2% plus a £345 one-off payment was rejected by workers, who instead voted for industrial action.

Members of unions agreed to take part in industrial action in January for the first time, with Unison telling Utility Week the Department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) had not engaged in negotiations with the unions.

“Therese Coffey should stop ignoring the plight of these invaluable workers and start tackling the growing staffing problems at the Environment Agency,” Rowe-Merriman added.

The EA has struggled to recruit and retain staff, with uncompetitive pay often cited as a reason for experienced workers moving away from the Agency.

However, EA chair Allan Lovell recently told a Defra select committee staffing increased from 10,500 people to 12,250 over the past year. Despite funding being repeatedly slashed for the past decade the Agency’s budget increased this year.