Atos IT workers threaten strike during Olympics over 'living wage'
Union: Games sponsor 'makes millions on the backs of its low-paid staff'
Posted in Management, 10th July 2012 09:19 GMT
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Atos IT workers are threatening to strike over pay in industrial action that could hit the London Olympics.
The Public and Commercial Services union said it was balloting members on strike action this week after they voted not to accept "below-inflation pay offers".
Over 1,500 members across Atos Healthcare and Atos IT Services will get to vote for or against going on strike, which they could decide to do during the Olympic Games.
"In sponsoring the Olympics, Atos would like the world to associate it with a spirit of effort and success, but the reality is that it makes its millions on the backs of its low-paid staff," PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said in a canned statement.
The union claims that Atos is refusing to give employees what's known as a "living wage" – the minimum necessary for basic needs – which it says is £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 an hour in the rest of the UK.
Atos said that it has made a "fair and competitive offer".
If the members vote to go on strike, health centres could lose administrative and reception staff from Atos Healthcare. Atos IT Services workers have a number of contracts, including tech support for BBC production staff and on-air presenters and IT support for the Welsh Assembly.
An Atos spokesperson told The Register that services wouldn't be affected during the Olympics if workers went on strike.
"We have robust contingency plans in place to avoid any disruption to services in the event of a strike," Atos said. ®
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COMMENTS
Are there ANY olympics sponsors who aren't complete arseholes?
I went out to shoot some shots of the torch passing through the local town, we waited for 90 minutes, the first through were 3 huge trucks by Coke, Samsung and some other mega-corp. They took about 5-10 minutes to crawl up the 400 yards of the high-street. Next up were, two Police bikes, a police car, the bearer and a support coach, they were rushed through at lightning speed I barely got time to rattle off 3 shots before they were all gone!
I think I know whose benefit the torch parade is for!
Re: 0.5%, *really*?
There are whole towns claiming falsely? Where? Don't spout out such statements without anything to back it up. Why don't you report them and your family members? I would dearly love to know how anyone can game a system where people with terminal illnesses are found fit to work and then die within weeks.
Personally I have mental health issues that mean I practically lived in my bedroom and even though I live with parents I would see them perhaps 5 - 10 minutes a day on a "good" day. I was waiting close to THREE years for help after asking for it and when I finally got it and had appointments with psychiatrists, CPNs and various groups I was sent for a medical and given 0 points. The person doing the medical wasn't a psychiatrist, she wasn't even a doctor, she was a nurse. She blatantly lied on the forms and wrote down that I'd never sought *any* help despite a veritable mountain of evidence to the contrary. It took a year to get to appeal and I came out with *31* points.
The point in all this? If I, and others like me, can't pass a medical with these assholes and you know of people that are gaming the system then report them! Family or not they are a huge part of the problem. I struggled and thought plenty of times about suicide because it felt like an endless hassle when I was doing everything I was able to at the time. Others have unfortunately gone through with it yet anyone gaming the system, as you put it, doesn't care because there is nothing wrong with them.
AC because while I don't mind sharing this I do mind trolling assholes and don't want this coming back to me.
Having worked for a union (for free) in a company that did do staff satisfaction surveys my experience is they were a worthless distraction and management spent more time trying to figure out who said what in the verbatim comments. The standard reply to a large number of dissatisfied staff was "well why are they still here". Any dissent over wages was met with "we benchmark well against other companies". Any comments relating to specific managers were "personal grudges and should be ignored".
It was frankly one of the most soul destroying experiences of my life, having encoraged every last person to fill them in. Worked on the results, held sessions with staff (it was hell trying to have no management sitting in on those sessions, and the first question asked was always "who said that") and come up with a series of suggestions that wouldn't cost much but would help address valid issues, to sit down with a bunch of desk warmers and have it all shot down as just spiteful malicous rumblings from the great unwashed.
I have also seen at first hand how they manipulate the figures, either upgrading "no comment / indifferent" to a positive or excluding them. Anything to bugger with the figures.
So by all means put down you are dissatisfied with your wages but you will only be told your compensation package benchmarks well against competitors, although they will include amounts for the pathetic staff gym, amounts for free parking in a crime ridden industrial estate ad nauseum anything to make your compensation look higher. Plus isn't benchmarking wages effectively price fixing?
Re: Atos IT workers are threatening to strike
They are contracted to run the medicals for the WCA (ESA assessment) and for DLA.
They are widely despised by the disabled community, and have a track re ord that would see other government contractors investigated. Their declaring people fitter than they are is costing at least £60m per year in appeals alone. The human cost is even greater.
A less-fitting sponsor for the Paralympics I could not imagine.
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