A disagreement has broken out between a UK trade union and Vattenfall over its offshore workers’ terms of employment in the country.
Maritime union RMT has accused the Swedish wind farm developer of threatening to “fire and re-hire” its members at Vattenfall Wind Power – an allegation the company has denied.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “Our members are working hard during the pandemic to maintain and operate Vattenfall’s offshore wind farms, having delivered over £19m in profit in 2019.
“Yet they are being threatened with fire and re-hire because they objected to the employer’s changes to terms and conditions, including cuts to annual leave.
“There is no way that attacks like this would fly in Sweden, where trade unions have a seat on Vattenfall Group’s board and there is no way RMT will accept these outrageous threats.”
A Vattenfall spokesperson responded to the claims by saying it has “not made any threat of termination and re-engagement”. The company said it is not in a formal negotiation with the union but is in talks with employees.
The spokesperson said its UK offshore wind teams are key to Vattenfall’s operations and to the goal of reaching net zero by 2050.
“Vattenfall has been in discussions with our teams to ensure consistent and fair terms and conditions at all our offshore wind farms in the UK,” said the spokesperson.
“Our proposals have been accepted by the vast majority of our offshore workforce.
“They will not leave any employee financially worse off, nor will they affect continuous service or benefits entitlements, or reduce the amount of paid leave people can take.”
The spokesperson added the process is “straightforward” and will enable employees to be part of our future strategy, including “better terms and conditions than their current contracts”.