WORKERS at Harwich’s Trinity House have gone on strike for the first time in 500 years due to a dispute over pay.
A picket line was in place outside Trinity House, at Harwich Quay, on Wednesday morning after Prospect union members working at the Trinity House Lighthouse Service decided to take industrial action.
The union said it comes following a dispute over pay, job losses and redundancy terms.
As well as strike action, workers will take continuous action short of a striking from Thursday, which will include only working contracted hours and an overtime ban.
Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, said: “Our members in Trinity House and the rest of the public sector have seen their incomes decline by up to 26 per cent over the past 13 years and their work taken for granted - they have had enough.
“Bills are rocketing and pay is falling ever further behind the private sector, leaving our members with no option but to take industrial action.
“We will continue our campaign until the government comes up with a meaningful offer.
“If it doesn’t do so soon, we may be left with no Civil Service to protect.”
The union said Trinity House is an important employer in Harwich and performs an important public service providing aids to navigation, safeguarding shipping and seafarers as well as being the general lighthouse authority for England.
Trinity House is one of the oldest still operating companies in the UK, being given its charter in 1514 by Henry VIII.
The union said this is believed to be the first-ever strike by shore-based employees in its 500 years of operation.
A spokesman for Trinity House said: “The Corporation of Trinity House, carrying out its statutory role as a General Lighthouse Authority, is sponsored by the Department for Transport (DfT) and as such we are required to work within Government pay policy and annual pay remit. Trinity House is not planning job losses or redundancies.
“As part of a comprehensive business case submitted to the DfT last year, Trinity House has just received approval of a pay award for 2022/23 that will be paid in March and backdated to August 1, 2022.
“A second business case is currently being prepared and will be scoped within the parameters of the Government’s 2023/24 pay remit, continuing to seek the best outcomes possible for our valued employees.”
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