Kini Pathmanathan
Head of HR
Thales UK
Quadrant House
4 Thomas More Square
Thomas More Street
London E1W 1YW
Our Ref: LUL/14/2
27th February 2015
Dear Kini,
BREAKDOWN IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – THALES GTS
Following recent discussions between the Company and RMT regarding the proposed changes to the Services organisation as part of the GTS Optimisation Programme, I am writing to advise you that a dispute situation now exists between our organisations. The proposals mean that my members are facing worsening rosters, shift patterns, terms and conditions, less staff and compulsory redundancies, which is unacceptable to RMT. As a result, my Union will be conducting a ballot for industrial action amongst our affected members and I will provide the appropriate notice, in accordance with the legislation, in due course.
As you will be aware from these discussions, the issues leading to this dispute include the failure to agree over changes to rosters. Also, RMT is totally opposed to any compulsory redundancies and does not believe that these job losses are necessary or that full consultation into mitigating these job losses has been conducted in a meaningful way. I note that the Company has refused to consider the option of voluntary redundancy and continues to use sub-contractors as opposed to directly employed staff. Furthermore, the proposed redundancy criteria are not fit for purpose and these should be withdrawn until such time as agreement has been reached between our organisations.
As always, we remain available for talks aimed at resolving this dispute.
Yours sincerely
Mick Cash
General Secretary