Fujitsu Dispute Settled

Fujitsu Unite members have voted to end strike action after accepting a deal agreed at Acas.

The agreement brings an end to a four-month dispute which involved 10 days of strikes and other action short of strike action.

Unite members voted by four-to-one to end the action which had been sparked by a dispute about a pay freeze implemented last year, the cutting of 1,200 jobs, and the closure of the final salary pension scheme.

Compulsory redundancies had now been reduced from 1,200 to less than 30, with the extension of employment until at least 26 March, while Fujitsu has extended the consultation period for pension changes and offered a 5% increase in pay as compensation for the change to a defined contribution scheme.

The final salary pension scheme will now run for an extra year, until March 2011, and the IT services firm also made a commitment to discuss more open pay and benefit scales and agreed to the introduction of a minimum basic salary of £12,000, applicable from 1 March 2010.

Peter Skyte, Unite national officer for the IT sector, said: "While the Acas-brokered proposals do not fully satisfy our members' aspirations, there have been significant changes in the company's position on jobs, pay and pensions over the course of the dispute."

Well done to Unite Fujitsu members for many members this is the first time they have been involved in an industrial dispute.!