UNISON welcomes withdrawal of Accenture jobs threat

UNISON has today welcomed the announcement by Accenture of its withdrawal of redundancy proposals from employees working on its ScottishPower contract.

This outcome means that hundreds of employees – based in East Kilbride (South Lanarkshire) and Queensferry (North Wales) – who were facing redundancy and the insecurity of unemployment as Christmas approached can now look forward to a more stable flow of work and job security for the foreseeable future.

The announcement by Accenture follows months of detailed negations and discussions between trade unions, Accenture, ScottishPower and parent company Iberdrola.

Accenture told staff this week it had secured significant new project work and had therefore extended the scope of its support contract with ScottishPower.

Gerry Crawley, regional organiser for UNISON, said: “This is great news for our members who have gone through a difficult time and suffered a lengthy period of uncertainty about their jobs.

“This decision is testament to the hard work of all those involved, together with the support of local politicians, in preventing job losses at a time of great economic uncertainty.”

In a statement to its ScottishPower workforce, Accenture said: “We consider this to be a very positive outcome. It is a position that saves jobs for the foreseeable future and will result in a stable demand position for additional project work to at least the end of 2011 and hopefully beyond.”