Hinkley Point and Sizewell nuclear plant engineers go on strike

Specialist engineers working on Britain’s newest nuclear power station have gone on strike, saying they have not had a pay rise in four years and that cheap foreign labour is being used to undercut British workers.
The cabling and pipework engineers, represented by the professional trade union Prospect, work on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station being built in Somerset by EDF, as well as the Sizewell C project planned for Suffolk.
They claim that since beginning their dispute last year with their employer Alten, which provides engineering services for the projects, they have discovered foreign colleagues brought in from outside the UK and EU, from places such as India and Nigeria, are being paid about half their wages.
A source told The Times: “We started the dispute about pay rises before it emerged that foreign colleagues were being brought in on vastly lower wages.
“We are all on between £50,000 and £75,000 but it has since emerged that these foreign colleagues are being paid less than £30,000. That is absolutely ridiculous for the type of work they are doing and it is being done to drive down costs and the internal market rate for these roles.”
The French energy company EDF is reportedly in talks with investors to raise up to £4 billion to finish the delayed Hinkley Point C project, which is due to begin generating electricity by 2030, according to EDF, five years later than first planned and 12 years after construction began.
The project’s costs have also spiralled, from £18 billion when its contracts were signed in 2016 to £47.9 billion today, due in part to supply chain issues and problems securing skilled engineers.
Around 60 specialist engineers at Alten have formed a bargaining group with the trade union Prospect to seek a 5 per cent pay rise this year, to “have a degree of pay restoration” after an absence of pay rises in the past four years.
Andy Jennings, national secretary of Prospect, said: “The company is saying they will pay performance-related pay rises but we want everyone to get a cost of living pay rise and, if they want to reward performance on top of that, it is up to them.
“Many people have left this unit in the last 12 months because of the intolerable position they have been put in regarding pay.”
The engineers voted last week to strike for 24 hours on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, this brings into doubt how the supply chain workers are being treated and it damages the reputation of Hinkley Point C and Sizewell at a time when they are going out to secure more funding,” Jennings said. “It’s in everyone’s interest that this is settled, so the focus can go into delivering Hinkley Point C.”
Jennings said they had talks on Monday with Alten in an attempt to avert the strike action “but they simply refused to engage in the principle that every worker is entitled to a pay rise.
“They said it is not in their DNA,” he said. “I think that any company that puts into their DNA not to recognise all their staff is cast in a poor light.”
Alten was approached for comment.