Members of the GMB union will vote on whether to strike, after management apparently declined to reopen talks.
Gary Smith, GMB National Secretary for the water industry, said: “This 2% offer is the lowest in the industry and is well below inflation. It is not acceptable to GMB members.”
He pointed out that Severn Trent had raised customer bills by 5.2 per cent this year and recently announced plans to return £150 million to shareholders, on top of the regular dividend.
In a written statement (below), Severn Trent expressed disappointed that the union had decided to ballot:
“Less than 700 of our 5000 Severn Trent Water employees are members of the GMB.
We are disappointed that the GMB union does not value the total reward package on offer which we believe is very competitive in the current market.
The 2% pay increase on base pay is the same for all employees, including executives and managers. Over and above this, we have an annual ‘Reward for Performance’ bonus scheme, which will pay out in the region of £350 to £400 per person to eligible employees this year and we have also agreed to offer an additional 0.5% on top.
Plus, eligible employees also benefit from an allocation of free shares every year, which will amount to £309 per employee this year. An equivalent total reward package last year was worth over 6% of base pay.
We provide a good overall service and value for money for our customers, who pay the lowest average water and sewerage bills in England and Wales. At an average of £326, water and sewerage bills amount to around 89p per day.
The last hosepipe ban in the Severn Trent region was back in 1996 and we have also announced record low levels of leakage, well ahead of regulatory targets. Additionally, we have pledged to invest a further £150 million this year to improve our infrastructure.”
This article originally stated that all 5,000 Severn Trent workers were GMB union members. We are happy to correct this.