National emergency radio strike
Employees at Airwave, the UK's emergency services communications network, are set to strike.
The management was notified on Friday 6th March by trade union, CWU, of their intention to strike. This is in response to Airwave reducing its staff numbers by 11% due to the current economic downturn.
Richard Bobbett, Airwave's CEO, said, "I want to reassure all our customers, and the general public, that the Airwave service will be unaffected by this strike action. Airwave is more than prepared for this sort of eventuality. We have robust business continuity arrangements in place for all eventualities from flu pandemics to national emergencies. I am deeply disappointed that the CWU feel such action is necessary and I look forward to continued talks with the CWU in the not too distant future.
"Of the originally proposed 95 redundancies, to date we have accepted 59 voluntary applicants. Together with our commitment to redeployment through the flexible resource pool, this means that we can significantly reduce the need for compulsory redundancy. Naturally I deeply regret I have had to take this action and we are offering full support to all those individuals affected."
