GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK) workers are to be balloted for a potential strike over a pay dispute, according to union Unite.
After being offered a pay increase of 2.75%, with an offer of 4% potentially available "but with considerable strings attached", the union said its 1,000 or more workers who work for the FTSE 100 pharmaceutical company said the offers have both been rejected.
Both offers would amount to a pay cut in real terms, with the latest retail price and consumer price inflation numbers reaching 7.8% and 5.5%, a 30-year high.
The ballot for industrial action will open today, Unite said, with a vote for industrial action resulting in a strike begin called later this spring, which the union said was likely to cause product shortages.
With GSK having generated operating profits of £6.2bn in 2021 from sales of £31bn, with profit expected to grow more than 12% this year, with chief executive Emma Walmsley seeing her pay increase 17%, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a cast iron example of corporate greed.
“GSK can easily afford to pay our members a decent pay increase. Instead they are making a pathetic offer to our members while the bosses line their pockets.
“Unite will be giving our members at GSK its full backing until this dispute is resolved.”
GSK's unionised workers include those in roles from engineers and technicians to laboratory analysts, warehouse workers and labourers, with ballots being held at its sites at Montrose and Irvine in Scotland; Ware in Hertfordshire; Worthing in West Sussex; Barnard Castle in Durham; and Ulverston in Cumbria.
Unite national officer for pharmaceuticals Tony Devlin said: “Unite’s members at GSK are balloting for strike action as a last resort. The union has exhausted all other avenues to resolve this dispute through negotiations.
“GSK needs to understand the strength of feeling of our members on pay. Industrial action could be averted if it returns to the negotiating table and makes a pay offer in line with workers expectations.”