Scotland: Ten week strike to come to an end

The 40 female employees at Sunvic Controls in Uddingston walked out after 14 months of talks on pay and new employment conditions collapsed. Union officials said the company wanted to implement periodic lay-offs and short-time working when demand was low. The T&G Scotland section of Unite welcomed the resolution brokered with the help of conciliation service Acas.

The firm makes central heating thermostats and energy-saving programmers for the building trade and DIY store chain B&Q.

The workers' union had reached a stalemate with management but a settlement has now been agreed in principle.The wome n are expected to be back at work by Monday.

'Significant improvement'
T&G Scotland said the settlement meant any issue relating to short-term lay-offs will now have to be dealt with through a robust and meaningful process of consultation between workers, their union representatives and management.

Jimmy Farrelly, the union's senior regional industrial officer, said: "The outcome is a significant improvement on the company's original stance and we are delighted this has now been resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

"This has been an incredibly difficult time for our members many of whom rely on their wages to keep them on the breadline.

"They have gone without pay for 10 weeks and shown unbelievable courage, dignity and togetherness when it would have been easy to throw in the towel."

The decision to end the strike and accept the agreement in principle was unanimously supported by the workers at an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening.