A long-running dispute at British Gas has ended after workers accepted an improved pay deal.
The GMB union declared an end to the “fire and rehire” dispute after its members backed an agreement by three to one. About 7,000 engineers staged 44 days of strike action over several months.
The GMB said that “a new deal offers improvements to overtime rates and unsocial hours payments, places limits on the amount of unsocial working undertaken, reverses the decision to close the defined-benefit pension scheme to new starters and opens the door for those who left the business to return”.
Centrica, the British Gas owner, said it was pleased that “today’s agreement . . . effectively brings the dispute to an end”.
The boss of Centrica had come under personal attack over the “fire and rehire” policy. In February Chris O’Shea told the business select committee that “my wife and teenage son had a package of excrement delivered to them with a note about ‘fire and rehire’ ”.