Staff at Legal & General’s (L&G) Kingswood headquarters have stopped short of striking over the office’s closure and will opt for other industrial action instead.
The result of the final ballot, which was conducted by union Unite, stopped short of full strike action, but will lead to staff taking other action such as refusing to work beyond their contracted hours.
Unite did not rule out the possibility of a full strike if L&G refused to offer an acceptable deal during negotiations.
L&G originally planned to close its Kingswood head office by the end of 2017. According to a note to staff at Kingswood issued in August 2015, at least 250 jobs were expected to be cut as a result of the closure.
However, in December 2015 L&G pushed back the closure of the office by a year to the end of 2018. The company also said there would be no compulsory redundancies if the Kingswood site was closed.
L&G has said the majority of the 1,550 employees at the site would be offered jobs in the company’s other offices in Hove, Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Wittam.
The news of the office closure was met with opposition from the start. Unite initially balloted its members at the site in September 2015. New Model Adviser® revealed that 90% of those members voted in favour of some form of industrial action.
It conducted a final ballot of its members over December and January.
It is understood that just over 300 workers voted in the ballot. Of these 67.5% voted in favour of ‘action short of a strike’ and 32.5% voted against taking this action.
The vote for full strike action was narrowly defeated as 49.8% of the votes cast supported a strike, and 50.2% voted against it.
Ian Methven, Unite regional officer for Maidstone, said the cost of the action was ‘incalculable’ as it relied on staff taking overtime.
‘L&G is a company which relies on staff going the extra mile, from working late to volunteering for overtime,’ he said.
‘Our members are dedicated and hardworking professionals, but today’s result shows that a tipping point has been reached and their goodwill can no longer be taken for granted. Frankly, the cost to the company is incalculable.’
However, a spokesman for L&G said customers would be unaffected by the result of the ballot.
‘The ballot has given them the option to work to rule, should Unite decide to take this option, which they haven’t yet,’ he said.
‘Our customers will not be impacted by the outcome of the ballot.’
Source New Model Adviser