Brighton parking attendants in New Year strike

7:55pm Wednesday 19th December 2007

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Parking attendants will go out on strike after bosses cancelled their Christmas party and bonuses.

Around 120 staff plan to walk out on January 5 in Brighton and Hove, creating fears of a chaotic parking free-for-all as Saturday shoppers head to the sales.

NCP Services, which patrols the streets on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council, told staff it could not afford the cost of a party or an annual bonus - usually a £25 Argos voucher for each year of service for the firm.

But the GMB union, which represents NCP attendants and support staff, said the claim was ludicrous and criticised the "Scrooge-like" firm.

Now a ballot of its members has revealed 97 per cent were in favour of action short of a strike, with 86 per cent in favour of all-out strike action.

GMB organiser Rachel Lyons said: "The result of the ballot shows NCP's attempts to cancel Christmas have been met with a resolute response from our members.

"While NCP allege the removal of the Christmas bonus and party are down to cost, savings made through cutting a minimal reward for staff doing a difficult and challenging job are quite clearly not worth having.

"NCP's management have not contacted us to discuss the dispute believing staff would not vote for action. This result shows our members are more determined than NCP give them credit for and their message is clear - this is a principle worth standing up for and we will not be bullied into submission."

NCP is owned by private equity firm 3i whose owners made £235m in profit earlier in the year through a partial sale of the business.

The attendants originally planned to start the three-day strike this weekend to coincide with the Christmas rush for maximum disruption but the strike will now take place on January 5.

It is believed two days of non-strike action will take place on January 4 and 6, during which time attendants will walk the streets but not issue any tickets.

Tim Cowen, of NCP Services, said: "We are disappointed at the result. We will be talking to all the staff at staff committees across the UK in January to seek their views about how they would like the money previously spent at Christmas to be distributed in 2008.

"We have a good relationship with the GMB and look forward to their views on the subject.

"We hope they do not take industrial action but if they do we have a contingency plan in place to ensure we deliver the same level of service to Brighton and Hove, to ensure that parking continues to be managed effectively to the benefit of the local community."