Renewables Update
October 2021
NOTHING ABOUT YOU, WITHOUT YOU! WELCOME!
Welcome to an update aimed specifically at our members employed as technical grades within the renewables sector. I am your elected National Officer with responsibility for representing and promoting the interests of our members across all areas of the Maritime sector. RMT has a history of organising across many grades in offshore oil and gas and we are
now actively organising members throughout the supply chain of the renewables sector. I am committed to establishing direct communication and engagement with our technician members nationally to determine what your key concerns are, if your concerns are employer specific or industry wide and developing an organising strategy to protect your current terms and conditions. We want to ensure your voice is heard and enable workers to have a voice at every table, whether this be with your employer, influencing industry or lobbying the politicians around green energy and quality jobs. Dialogue with workers throughout the sector has identified that those that didn’t think there was a requirement for a union five years ago, now consider it a requirement. Why is that? Get in contact and tell us. The objective of this update is not just to provide you with information, but also to seek your input, seek activists and encourage contact from those within the industry about what we should be doing, or as the case may be, what we shouldn’t be doing! As a skilled workforce in an industry which is in the media almost daily, who is the voice for you and your colleagues, irrespective of the subject matter. Nothing about the industry should be discussed without input from those that it will affect, and that’s YOU! So who is representing your collective concerns? Who is voicing your opinion? Who has your back? That is the role of a trade union and that is why RMT is the workers choice within the Renewables sector. Whether you have been in the RMT for years, or you have just joined, or even if you are looking to join, we need active members involved in the machinery of the union. You can make that choice to become active today and be part of a more organised renewables workforce and I am respectfully requesting that you consider joining RMT.
Regards, Darren Procter
VATENFALL RECOGNITION
RMT ACHIEVE UNION RECOGNITION FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AT VATTENFALL WINDPOWER LTD – BARROW-IN-FURNESS
Regional Organiser Daren Ireland (second from right) with RMT members at Vatenfall
RMT Regional Organiser Daren Ireland reports In September 2020, Vattenfall embarked on a harmonisation programme, some proposals involved reducing holiday entitlement, incorporating four bank/public holidays into the off shift and therefore unpaid, unpaid breaks for all, these proposals were rejected by the workforce, however the employee engagement forum, failed to bring a resolution, the workers choose to get organised into a trade union and chose Maritime Union, RMT. Working with the union’s Liverpool Shipping Branch we soon had 100% membership and the workers showed tremendous solidarity by sticking together in unity, despite management threatening to fire and re-hire these workers. With the assistance and experience of RMT a greatly improved deal was agreed by the union membership, after this victory, the union made an
application for recognition through the statutory process via the Central Arbitration Committee, the claim was accepted. The negotiations then commenced with the assistance of ACAS after a number of months and several iterations, a voluntary recognition agreement has been concluded between RMT and Vattenfall, which gives collective bargaining for pay, hours and holidays. The agreement also provides two industrial reps and one health and safety representative, the nomination process is now underway. This now gives Service Leaders, Offshore Technicians, Warehouse and Offshore Planning union bargaining power at the Ormonde Offshore Windfarm, to improve pay and conditions as well as health and safety in the Offshore Sector. We now intend to build on this success.will do all we can to ensure we cover it in the next update.
ANONYMOUS REPORTING
There appears to be a fear in some areas of raising concerns within the workplace and if you have an issue that you wish to raise but want to remain anonymous you can do so by contacting one of the union officials on the contact details below. We have raised a number of issues directly with HSE now and will continue to do so if there is a fear of retribution within your workplace.
MENTAL HEALTH The issue of Mental Health at work has been compounded further by the pandemic and this is an area that we have recently initiated a campaign to establish best practice. Some employers have developed educational courses, support networks and are taking a proactive approach to Mental health, whilst others are doing the bare minimal. How well do you think your employer is approaching mental health? For more information on the campaign or materials for your workplace get in contact with Jonathan at: j.havard@rmt.org.uk
YOUR
Mental Health Matters You are not alone... there is help at hand.
Mental Health Matters RMT is working closely with employers and health charities to better understand, improve support and promote mental wellbeing in your workplace
ORSTED ORGANISING UPDATE
RMT continues to increase membership at Orsted and has recently organised meetings in Barrow in Furness and Liverpool to discuss key issues and progress membership numbers to establish recognition. We have also been visiting Orsted members at Grimsby to increase membership on the East Coast with a view of seeking recognition with the company. It is vitally important that all members encourage discussion within the workplace about joining RMT and continue to build our membership density.
RECRUITING IN LOWESTOFT
We’ve recently been on organising visits at Lowestoft targeting technicians, distributing copies of our renewables specific materials and we appreciate the feedback of those that have contacted us. We are looking to organise a public meeting for members and potential members to discuss our current work within the renewables sector, what we as union have to offer and listen to how you think we can best organise in this area. If you work in the area please let your colleagues know of our intention and we will look to circulate details when confirmed.
IR35
Are you a sub-contractor technician impacted by IR35? RMT has raised this politically as it has been brought up by various grades in which we organise. Problems with IR35 were brought to our attention recently by sub-contractor technicians in Barrow in Furness, and we want to know how this has or will affect you and your colleagues, so get in contact and give us as much detail as possible.
TRANSITION?
We hear a lot about the ability of workers to transition from oil and gas into renewables, but is it happening and if it is what is the impact on pay and conditions? In the offshore oil and gas sector where RMT are signatories to the “Energy Services Agreement” (ESA) the technicians there have a basic annual salary of around £58, 231 which equates to roughly £25.65 per hour. There are incremental enhancements to this including holiday pay, pension provision, sick pay, travel, accommodation, etc. and you can read the ESA on the Oil & Gas UK web site. However, as ‘Technicians’ (Electrical, Mechanical, Instrument etc.) shouldn’t the idea of ‘transition’ work both ways? What we mean is - shouldn’t we see technicians in the renewables sector enjoy comparable or even the same pay and conditions as those in oil and gas? You don’t become any less of a Technician moving around the sector do you?
NON-PAYMENT OF NMW IN RENEWABLES
You may surprised to hear that a CTV company used in a number of the renewables ports around the UK has recently been identified as not paying NMW to deckhands and sent a communication to employees confirming this stating they didn’t realise they had to pay NMW! Whilst this may not affect you directly we need to ensure when industry and politicians talk about ‘quality jobs’ this is the reality in some areas of the supply chain.
LET’S GET ORGANISED Head of Organising Alan Pottage reports
RMT is very proud to be an industrial ‘all grades union’. This means we treat every worker the same and our objective is to strongly organise every single worker who is employed in the sectors where RMT organises. RMT specialises in Transport and Energy and we are one of the fastest growing unions in the country because we focus on organising workers and using that collective strength in the workplace to secure improvements to job security, terms and conditions, pay, safety and pensions. We are capable of helping workers get organised in companies where there is no trade union protection. Vattenfall (Barrow in Furness) is a perfect example of RMT working with the workers to secure a recognition agreement that gives the workforce a proper voice. This campaign took a year from when we were first contacted until securing recognition Initially the employer was very reluctant however
100% membership in our Bargaining Unit allowed us to use legislation to force the company to talk and we ended up at negotiations at ACAS and, after many protracted and difficult meetings, Regional Organiser Daren Ireland and myself were able to secure a CBA that was worthy of recommending to our NEC and we are now officially recognised. This means the workers can elect their reps and we can get them trained at our National education centre in Doncaster. The reps will be able to deal with most of the day to day issues and Daren will assist the workplace reps especially when it comes the collective bargaining over pay, terms and conditions. We also made it clear that pensions would be a subject we would like to improve upon. So the technicians and other grades at Vattenfall have shown the way. If you are determined and strong you can win. Hopefully the rest of the offshore Renewable energy sector will take notice and join RMT. We need to set proper standards and keep on making improvements. We can only do that if we stick together and get organised!
AGE CONCERNS?
We are seeing an increase in individuals being hauled over the coals who have impeccable employment records for what we believe to be around age related performance and is something that we are monitoring. If you have been subjected to scrutiny and you believe it is connected to your age as opposed to any performance related issues, get in contact with RMT today.
BENEFITS OF RMT
One of the biggest concerns I have found when I have visited various sites is that members do not necessarily know the benefits of being in the RMT, whilst these are often publicised within RMT News the feed back that I have received when visiting members is that this is an area we could improve in communicating to the workplace. If you search on the internet RMT Member benefits this will take you to the website that identifies all benefits and allow you to download the appropriate form if required.
These benefits include but are not limited to: • • • • • • • • •
Accident benefit Death grant Orphan benefit Retirement benefit Permanent downgrading or demotion benefit Free will service Legal services for you and your family Credit Union Education course
If you require details on any particular benefit contact your union rep or a union official for more details.
YOUR VOICE WITHIN THE INDUSTRY
As an individual employed within the renewables industry you will be all too familiar with the news coverage surrounding investment within renewables, the continual use of terminology and statistics highlighting the 1000’s of quality jobs being created. The emergence of the renewables industry and what it’s about has to date been generated by the voice of the bosses. Who is holding the flag for the workers and relaying your concerns, who is making your voice heard within these forums? Who is raising your views on the short, medium and long terms? Who is responding to news within the industry that is affecting or will affect you and your colleagues as technicians? The workers need to ensure you have a voice, you have an outlet and your voice is being heard.
HEALTH AND SAFETY REPRESENTATIVE
Who is representing your interests with regards to safety issues within your workplace, is it somebody employed by the company on safety specific issues or a representative elected by the workforce who is given adequate training and facility time to carry out the duties of a safety representative? All too often we are hearing that the company has employed an individual based in an office on safety specific issues. This is not a safety representative of the workforce but a safety representative of the company.
TECHNICIAN NETWORK
If you would like to be part of a wider network of RMT technicians, to discuss key points such as wage scales, training, safety, technology etc then get in contact as we are looking to build a national network of those employed within renewables. The issues that you have will not fix themselves!
RMT CONTACTS FOR RENEWABLES Scotland West Coast East Coast South Coast
Jake Molloy Daren Ireland Gary Jackson Darren Procter
j.molloy@rmt.org.uk or 07711 359705 d.ireland@rmt.org.uk or 07817 037019 g.jackson@rmt.org.uk or 07830 781752 d.procter@rmt.org.uk or 07949 246219
RMT Helpline
0800 376 3706 or info@rmt.org.uk
Scan the QR Code to join RMT or visit www.rmt.org.uk/join
www.rmt.org.uk