Safety fears at strike-hit Beith weapons plant after truck accident

GMB Scotland said that the accident has sparked "grave" safety fears over troops being used to fill in for striking workers as a contingency plan.

The Ministry of Defence said that the incident at the plant run by its specialist procurement arm Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S) surrounded a forklift truck's wheel becoming stuck on wet grass when conducting a turn on a narrow road.

It said that while nobody was injured, the incident was reported to the DE&S's safety reporting system and "learning from experience (LFE) has been captured".

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The MoD said the operator was fully experienced and licensed to operate the forklift which was not carrying a load.

Nearly 50 staff who handle Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles assembled at the MoD munitions plant at Beith began their two-week strike on Monday, last week.

Pickets formed at the gates to the munitions depot last week as two weeks of industrial action began after four days of targeted strikes failed to secure a resolution in a dispute over pay and bonuses.

The MoD has said it had safe contingency plans in place to minimise disruption and said the strike would have no effect on missile deliveries to Ukraine.

Chris Kennedy, GMB organiser, said they were told that the forklift almost overturned during the accident on September 13. The MoD insist that at no point was the vehicle at risk of overturning.

“It would appear this may have been a lucky escape but will they be so lucky next time," he said.

“Our members have years of experience transporting sensitive material around the complex and would rather be working than picketing.

“Given the nature of the material routinely transported around Beith, it seems a needless risk to suddenly ask soldiers to take on the duties of a trained workforce with years of experience working in and around the complex.

“We have grave concerns about the kind of duties apparently being undertaken by inexperienced personnel during this dispute and for their safety and the safety of other workers.

“We would urge the Ministry of Defence to stand down the troops and start talking about a resolution.”

The GMB union suspended its plans to stage its strike in mid-August after the MoD agreed to talks at the conciliation service Acas but union leaders said they did so under "false pretences" and in "bad faith".

GMB Scotland later accused the Ministry of Defence of "playing games" and risking the trust of staff at the Scots arms depot which employs around 200 people.

The strike is an escalation of a dispute between the GMB’s members at DE&S – the MoD body that handles the military’s supplies, equipment and weapons – over their pay and bonuses. In June and July, it staged a handful of one-day stoppages, the first in the agency’s history.

Beith was established in 1943, as an MoD Munitions Depot during the Second World War. The site has facilities to store, maintain, modify, refurbish, produce and test weapons for all the armed services.

It is now part of the MoD's Defence Munitions wing which has over 900 military and civilian employees undertaking operative and craft roles across its seven UK locations.

The MoD say staff from other Defence Munitions establishments routinely work at other sites and they say that in this case they can confirm that staff from other locations have undertaken familiarisation visits to Beith recently to improve cross-site working generally, but also to ensure that defence operations are "safely and securely" conducted during the period of industrial action.

DE&S delivers equipment and support services to all the UK armed forces but staff are divided between craft workers, who assemble weapons, and non-craft colleagues, who move the arms around the site and load them for shipment.

Staff have complained about a two-tier workplace where the gap between the salaries of craft workers and non-craft colleagues, who support their work and prepare equipment for transport, has widened dramatically.

Mr Kennedy said: “It is beyond time for a fair offer to be made and this dispute to be resolved.

“Our members remain completely united and even more determined to do whatever it takes to bring management back to the table which is the only place this dispute can end.”

The GMB say extra payments and bonuses have been made to managers and craft workers in recent years but not to non-craft colleagues often earning less than £21,000 a year while being asked to take responsibility for multi-million pound military equipment.

The GMB estimates its members, who handle, load and transport the missiles, are up to £18,000 a year worse off than the specialist staff who assemble them. They say the pay gap between craft and non-craft workers has tripled in recent years.

Scottish Labour MSP Katy Clark is among those who have written to defence secretary Ben Wallace to demand the MoD urgently negotiate, citing the “vital work they do in supporting Ukrainian resistance to Russia's invasion”.

The West Scotland region MSP and Scottish Labour's community safety spokesperson wrote: “Given the immense importance of the work they are doing, seeking to ensure equipment reaches allies under siege in Ukraine, it is concerning that management has fomented such unnecessary ill will and division among the workforce by creating huge pay disparities."

The Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVPU) has urged DE&S to settle the row and protect the supply of arms, including missiles, to the frontline.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) has well-established contingency plans in place to mitigate the impact of strike action while also ensuring all activities are carried out safely and securely by appropriately trained employees.

“DE&S management has put forward an offer which would significantly improve the pay of the workers in dispute in a sustainable and affordable way. The DE&S reward framework is designed to be fair and equitable and to recognise the knowledge, skills and experience employees bring to their roles. As with all employers, employees are paid differently depending on grade as well as the nature of their role.”

The MoD say that through the recent 2023 Pay Award, DE&S has uplifted the annual pay range minimum for the employees in question by £3,000, representing an increase of 14.63% in base pay.

It says that the offer DE&S has left on the table is that the employees in question will have the opportunity to achieve a further uplift from April 2024, which would represent a 37% increase in base pay since 2022.