News / No sign of ferries dispute thawing
THE TWO fronts in Shetland’s inter-islands ferries dispute seem to have been hardened as the islands prepare for a six-hour walkout by ferry mates on Wednesday.
John Taylor of the Unite trade union said on Tuesday that in a report to go before councillors on Monday, independent arbitration service ACAS has come down on the side of striking mates.
The dispute, which has been rumbling on for two years now, is over the evaluation of how mates are being paid in the wake of the single status pay agreement.
Unite has already staged two three-hour walkouts on 21 and 28 January, but Wednesday’s six-hours of industrial action represents an escalation.
Taylor said: “As far as we are concerned the strike is going ahead.
“Our member have discussed this for two years without success. We took on industrial action, and we have done everything possible to show the council that our members are serious but try not to damage the public.
“We have continually made concessions and the employer has never made any concessions.”
Unite seeks to get mates re-graded using an additional weighting to account for their outdoor exposure in a marine environment.
Taylor said a wheelhouse was not an office environment and should therefore be graded differently.
The council’s policy and resources committee will now meeting in private to discuss ACAS’ recommendations as well as a report by local authority umbrella group COSLA which comments on the difficulties in making local changes to a national scheme.
SIC transport and environment committee chairman Michael Stout said the mates had been independently assessed by the national job evaluation scheme – a body Unite had been instrumental in setting up.
“I find it difficult to see how the local branch of Unite can raise this industrial action and have issues with the job evaluation scheme, when nationally, Unite have been central to its formation.
“I’m also disappointed that ferry mates are taking this action again to disrupt our lifeline inter-island ferries, before the council has had a chance to consider the report and options before us.
“We have already offered to recognise the ability of mates to act as master when necessary and to therefore pay them at the higher grade,” Stout said.
But Taylor responded by saying that the job evaluation scheme wasn’t the issue.
“It really is disheartening that even after all this time they are still going on about this. We don’t have a problem with the job evaluation scheme.
“What we have said is that one section has been evaluated wrongly.
“The report from ACAS says that when looking in the environment mates are working in the wheelhouse cannot be classed as an office and should therefore score differently.
“In ACAS’ opinion this is how it should be looked at, and ACAS has said ‘here is a way forward if you want to pick it up’.”
He added that the union was open to have new talks once the council had discussed the reports. Meanwhile another six-hour walkout has been penciled in for Wednesday 11 February.
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