IT workers at Fujitsu Services are being sounded out about a strike over pay and pensions, the United Kingdom's largest union said on Monday.
Unite began a consultative ballot of its members at the start of the week, with the ballot set to close on August 26, the union said in a statement.
At the heart of the potential strike action is Fujitsu Services' decision to close its final pension scheme to further contributions. The company plans to dismiss workers subscribed to a defined benefit pension plan in September and then to offer those employees a new contract without that pension plan, according to the union. The move will effectively reduce each employee's total pay package by at least 15 percent, Unite said.
Around 4,000 Fujitsu Services employees--a third of the company's U.K. workforce--would be hit by the pension-scheme change, and about half of those staffers are Unite members.
"Fujitsu Services is a highly profitable and successful company which is seeking to take advantage of the recession to attack pay, pensions and conditions," Peter Skyte, Unite's national officer for IT and communications, said in the statement. "We are insisting that the company should increase pay and provide decent pensions for all its employees."
Fujitsu Services builds and runs IT systems for public-sector and large private-sector organizations, from the NHS to the aviation, financial services and telecommunications industries.
Fujitsu Services has also instituted a pay freeze despite its rising revenues, according to Skyte.
"What we're looking for is, obviously, more money than zero, but also a fairer pay system," Skyte told ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK. "The system is fairly secretive and lacks transparency."
Skyte said that, on the pensions issue, Fujitsu Services' management "appears to be indicating a willingness to look at alternative pensions options". However, he added, the company had shown "little willingness to reconsider its positions" on pay.
Fujitsu refused to on its workers' potential strike action, arguing that it cannot do so within the consultative period on the proposed changes due to end next month.
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