Swansea strike action called off

Trade union Unison has called off a series of one-day walk outs by council staff at Swansea over a proposed £100m IT outsourcing deal.

The one-day strikes and overtime ban were due to begin this Thursday after the union balloted 5,000 members at Swansea over what it perceives to be a privatisation agenda at the council. A 41 per cent turnout saw almost 1,300 vote in favour of strike action and action was also planned for 4 and 11 November.

This extenstion of industrial action followed an eight-week all out strike by 102 IT staff over the transfer terms for the proposed Service@Swansea IT outsourcing project. That strike was suspended earlier this month to allow for more talks between the two parties.

But a Unison regional branch meeting today voted not to proceed with the action and a planned overtime ban has also been called off.

Swansea council leader Chris Holley welcomed the news. "I feel that the majority of our staff never really wanted to take strike action and I think they will be as happy as I am that it won't be happening now," he said in a statement.

No-one at Unison was available for comment.