MEMBERS of the GMB union who work for British Gas mounted a protest at a busy Thurrock junction today as they took part in the first of a series of one day strikes over pay and conditions.

They are battling a British Gas decision to fire and rehire them on different contracts which workers say will massively impact on their pay and working conditions.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, has responded by saying the union is "fighting against modernisation".

That's not the view of workers who stood around a roundabout at the entrance to Lakeside in West Thurrock from 8am this morning (Wednesday, 20 January).

They told Thurrock Nub News they are angry and disappointed with British Gas and say the impact of the changes is unfair and Draconian. The GMB case is put fully in this link.

GMB national officer Justin Bowden says: "In the face of growing employee and customer discontent, and after the first round of the biggest and most successful gas strike in decades, the management of profitable British Gas continue to bury their heads in the sand.

"British Gas workers have already rejected pay cuts on pain of fire and rehire."

However, a spokesman for Centrica said: "We're operating in an incredibly competitive market and British Gas has lost too many jobs and too many customers over recent years.

"We can't continue like this. We need to take action to modernise and refocus the company in line with what our customers need now, not what they needed 20 years ago.

"Our pay for engineers will remain the highest in the sector, but we need to get productivity back to where it used to be and, for some, we need to increase the working week from 37 to 40 hours.

"We're not changing base pay or pensions, and we will reward increased productivity through additional bonuses."