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Fujitsu Services settles union dispute

Colin Barker ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 13 Sep 2007 14:43 BST

A dispute between Unite the Union (formerly Amicus) and Fujitsu Services ended on Wednesday, with members of the union agreeing to work normally and the management agreeing to accept a number of key terms including union recognition — something it had opposed in the past.

The dispute, which mainly hit Fujitsu operations in Manchester and clients such as Marks & Spencer and the Home Office, had been running since last year. It began as a series of one-day actions and then earlier this year became a series of three- and then 10-day actions.

The dispute was over redundancy rights, union recognition and better pay. The strike ended after members in Manchester voted by 99.6 percent (on an 89.2 percent turnout) to accept the company's offer for new agreements covering union recognition, redundancy and redeployment rights, pay and benefits.

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More than 1,000 employees, who work at the Central Park site or are based at home, are affected.

Unite North West Regional Secretary, Laurence Faircloth, said: "Our members are pleased that so many issues have been successfully resolved to end the dispute. We now hope to build a much better working relationship with Fujitsu."

Larry Upton, speaking for Fujitsu Services, said: "I am delighted that we have put this dispute behind us and can now go on to develop a relationship with Unite in Manchester that will be of benefit to our employees, our customers and the company as a whole."

On the key area of union recognition, Fujitsu Services and Unite agreed to "a protocol on facilities for organising Fujitsu sites where there is no union recognition agreement", the two sides said in a joint statement.