Scunthorpe British Steel Actavo scaffolders strike enters 100th day

The strike action by more than 60 Actavo employees began at the British Steel works on 4 October, but paused over the Christmas period

Scaffolders from the British Steel site in Scunthorpe have entered their 100th day of strike action in a pay dispute.

The Unite union has claimed the workers at the North Lincolnshire site are paid up to 15% below the nationally-agreed rate by contractor Actavo.

Industrial action began on 4 October, and the union said it would continue until the employer met its demands.

Actavo said the national agreement did not apply, but it was "keen to work on negotiations".

Scaffolders maintain more than 500 structures at the Scunthorpe site, according to Unite, with one worker saying they had not had "a proper pay rise" in 15 years.

'Not valued'

Chrissie West, whose husband is one of the scaffolders, told BBC Radio Humberside the situation was stressful.

She said there was a "feeling of not being valued for the job they are doing", along with the financial impact of trying to support a household with no money coming in.

"The anxiety sets in, and everything else becomes almost as if you can't work through it," she added.

Unite said Actavo was paying the scaffolders between 10-15% below the wage figure in the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI).

"We cannot allow companies to undercut our terms and conditions and start a race to the bottom," a spokesperson said.

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An Actavo spokesperson said: "While Unite is stating that the current situation is 'breaking' the NAECI agreement, the fact is NAECI does not apply.

"We understand that Unite agreed the current rates on a localised collective bargaining basis."

The company said it believed the employees' hourly rate of about £15 was "broadly on a par with the national average" for scaffolding works in the steel-making sector.

Almost 3,000 people work at the site in Scunthorpe, which was taken over in a £50m deal by Chinese steel-maker Jingye Group in March 2020.