Striking Fujitsu workers to vote on Acas deal

Industrial action at Fujitsu Services has been suspended while workers decide whether to accept a proposed deal on pay, pensions and redundancies.

Workers had previously voted for 12 days of strike action at the IT services provider, to protest against the closing of contributions to the company's final salary pension scheme, a proposed pay freeze and plans to make 10 percent of the company's UK workforce redundant.

However, two one-day strikes by Fujitsu members of the union Unite, planned for 8 and 10 February, have been suspended following a deal brokered by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), Unite national officer Peter Skyte told ZDNet UK on Friday.

Union members at Fujitsu locations around the UK are now set to vote on the proposals put forward to resolve the dispute, according to Unite.

"The result of the vote will be declared on Friday 26 February," the union said in a statement. "Meanwhile the company has delayed compulsory redundancies that were due to take effect."

In August, Fujitsu announced plans for up to 12,000 layoffs in the UK. In January, it said the eventual tally would be 900 job losses, including 586 voluntary and 290 compulsory redundancies.

Skyte said Unite has advised Fujitsu workers to vote to accept the Acas proposals.

The Acas deal would provide workers with a defined contributions pension, including an annuity to be taken as a lump sum on retirement, according to a source close to the industrial action. In addition, the pay freeze would go ahead, but a minimum salary of £12,000 would be instituted, while Fujitsu would endeavour to increase that to £13,500 within a year.

One matter still under discussion by Acas, Unite and Fujitsu is whether to stop allowing payments into the final salary pension scheme, the source added.

Fujitsu confirmed in a statement that industrial action had been suspended pending the outcome of the vote, but declined to comment further.