Nuclear scientists, engineers and technicians in charge of the government's decommissioning and clean-up programme are to ballot on taking industrial action for the first time in 25 years in protest against Gordon Brown's pay restraint policy.
The joint union committee - representing the normally moderate Whitehall union Prospect, Unite, the country's biggest union, and the GMB - has agreed to take action because of growing pay differentials between staff working for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the soon-to-be privatised British Nuclear Group (BNG) and the newly bought Magnox group for doing similar work.
The move has unnerved the Department of Trade and Industry and the UKAEA, which is to call a meeting of all parties in the next two weeks to try to head off damaging industrial action, which could put back the tight timetable to decommission Britain's ageing nuclear sites. The ballot is likely to be held next month.
The move could also add to the woes of the Cabinet Office, which has already had 113,000 civil servants walk out on one-day strikes organised by the Public and Commercial Services Union over pay and privatisation. After emphasising that neither Prospect nor the FDA, the top civil servants union, have joined in, ministers do not want a widening of industrial action in Whitehall.
The row has been brought to a head because of differing treatment of staff - where there is a skills shortage - between the UKAEA and the BNG at Sellafield. Last year's pay award of 2.5% was delivered 10 months late in February while negotiations have not even started for this year's pay rise from April.
According to the unions, they have already been informally told that any offer is unlikely to exceed Gordon Brown's norm of 2%.
But staff at BNG, according to the unions, have been offered a 4.9% pay rise on salaries that are already, on average, 10% higher than those paid to engineers and scientists at the UKAEA. Mr Brown's pay restraints do not apply to BNG because it is a public corporation and not a Whitehall body like the UKAEA, which employs civil servants.
The unions also point out that a small number of UKAEA staff at the old Windscale core at Sellafield have been offered pay increases worth up to £3,000 when they transfer to BNG while those not transferring will not receive the increase.
The unions are to ballot staff at Dounreay in the north of Scotland; Harwell, Oxfordshire; Winfrith in Dorset; Windscale at Sellafield; the Warrington office of UKAEA; and the Culham research centre in Oxfordshire.
David Luxton, national secretary for Prospect, blamed "the dead hand of the Treasury on pay deals" yesterday for sparking the demand for industrial action. He said: "Our members were extremely disappointed with last year's pay deal, which was delivered 10 months late, and even more disappointed that no negotiations have even started on this year's pay deal, which should have settled on April 1."
Davey Alexander, chairman of the joint union committee and member of Unite, said yesterday: "We have now agreed to prepare for a national ballot for industrial action because reluctantly we can't seem to make any further progress."
A DTI spokesperson said: "The Department of Trade and Industry values the contribution made by the UKAEA and its staff. Before entering into pay negotiations with employee representatives, UKAEA is required to obtain a pay remit from the Department of Trade and Industry as its sponsor department.
"The department is working actively and constructively with UKAEA to reach agreement on a pay remit and hopes to reach a timely conclusion to this stage of the process."
Backstory
The next stage in the break-up and sell-off of the nuclear industry takes place today with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority outlining the timetable and contract details for a new licence to manage the Magnox South group of nuclear sites. Potential bidders have been asked to attend the industry seminar to be held at conference centre in Berkshire. Officials from the NDA, unions and local communities will lay out what they expect from the successful bidder for the licence, which covers dismantling plants including Sizewell A and Hinkley Point A. One potential bidder present will be the US firm EnergySolutions, which announced last week that it would purchase the Magnox Electric business from British Nuclear Group.
