星空传媒

The deal consists of a 14.8% pay rise over three years: 4.67% in 2008, 4.5% in 2009 and 5% in 2010.

Union members had originally refused the Joint Industry Board鈥檚 (JIB鈥檚) wage offer at the end of June. A JIB/SJIB ballot was held nationally. Out of the 17 340 papers sent out, just 4150 were returned. In all, 59.46% of voters rejected the wage offer. Yet the deal was signed without any improvement from the ECA.

鈥淚t was a good agreement and we鈥檝e stuck with that,鈥� said Alex Meikle, head of employee relations at the ECA. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good for the guys and a sensible deal for ECA members.鈥�

Tom Hardacre, Unite-Amicus national officer, said: 鈥淚t is a reasonable deal, particularly in the light of what is being offered to public sector workers.鈥�

The apparent u-turn in feeling among the union stems from a mixture of the low response to the wage ballot in June and the laws surrounding industrial action. It appears that the legality of any strike ballot was likely to have been contested by the employers because of the union鈥檚 inability to know the whereabouts of all of its members. This meant that the only option open to the union was to assess the mood on a site-by-site basis.

鈥淲e consulted the membership on some high profile sites but there wasn鈥檛 the groundswell needed to take the employers on,鈥� said Hardacre.

Unite-Amicus is to address some of the balloting issues before any future negotiations with the employers.