A British Gas employee has spoken of his devastation after being "bullied" into signing the supplier’s new contracts at the final hour.
The long-standing employee said he now faces longer days with less pay and flexibility - while extra support at weekends and bank holidays has been withdrawn.
He’s one of thousands of employees who have signed the new terms in the past fortnight after the company dished out dismissal letters to those who refused to comply on April 1.
The bitter row, which involved nine months of strikes, came to an end as employees were told to sign or walk away on Wednesday.
“I’m among the worst affected,” employee James told The Mirror.
The 54-year-old who works for Scottish Gas, a British Gas subsidiary, said he felt “forced” into signing the new contract at the final hour.
Have you lost your job as a result of British Gas's restructuring? Get in touch: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
The employee says he is one year away from being able to access his workplace pension – and financially cannot afford to risk jeopardising that.
“After 37 years with Scottish Gas as an engineer, who are owned by Centrica, I reluctantly signed the contract after sending an email to the Centrica T&Cs department that I was doing so under protest,” he said.
James, who is also a carer for his severely ill 9-year-old daughter, said he has been struggling with mental health since losing his appeal against dismissal.
“I am a year away from getting the early benefits of a pension I have worked hard to pay into and therefore could not be dismissed and lose out on that,” he explained.
"They came and took my van away on Sunday," he said.
“The MPs have acted too late - they had nine months to act.
“All engineers were bullied into signing. The pressure just increased the longer you held out.
“With each new deadline, more engineers signed up until we got to the very last deadline of 12noon yesterday.”
James says he has not given up and has explained to the company that he “only signed in protest".
“So much was already wrong with a business that had once stood so proud amongst the top 100, now those days are long gone.”
In the past fortnight, dozens of engineers have spoken of their devastation over the company’s decision to employ a ‘fire and rehire’ policy.
Engineers told us they faced choosing between work and childcare, while others said they felt backed into a corner by their employer.
In the end, some signed the new terms this week, while others woke up this morning without a job.
The GMB union slammed the company for pushing ahead with its decision to sack engineers who are considered key workers.
In response, the company said it is time to move on.
GMB Regional Secretary Justin Bowden said: “These sacked gas engineers are badly needed by customers to clear the huge backlog of missed planned annual service visits and repairs.
“There is sadly nothing in law to stop corporate bullying by companies of their own staff to sign terms they don’t accept and sacking those who don’t submit to this bullying.”
In response to the GMB, British Gas said: “It’s now time for all parties to move forward and continue the turnaround of Centrica for our customers’ and our colleagues’ benefit.”
Speaking to The Mirror, the company added: "We care about all of our colleagues. That’s why we’ve had to make changes to ensure the survival of the company - to reverse our decline and protect the future of all our employees.’’
“We are changing the way we work to give our customers the service they want and protect the future of our company and 20,000 UK jobs.
“The changes we need to make are reasonable and 98% of the entire company has accepted new contracts.
“We have not cut base pay or changed our generous final salary pensions. Our gas service engineers remain some of the best paid in the sector, earning £40,000 a year minimum.
“While change is difficult, reversing our decline which has seen us lose over three million customers, cut over 15,000 jobs and seen profits halved over the last 10 years is necessary. The changes will also unlock our ability to grow jobs and hire 1000 green apprentices over the next two years.’’
