Environment Agency workers. image: press associaton
On Friday, thousands of workers from the Environment Agency initiated a three-day strike in protest of what they claim to be “endemic low pay.”
The Unison trade union has called for a strike by workers from the Environment Agency, which includes staff responsible for flood defenses, river pollution, and firefighting.
These emergency response teams have expressed concerns about being understaffed and overworked, which they say hampers their ability to effectively protect communities and safeguard the environment.
The government has acknowledged the strike and stated that representatives are in discussions with the unions to address the issue of pay.
The strike is scheduled to commence at 19:00 BST on Friday and conclude at 07:00 BST on Monday morning. This follows months of industrial action by Environment Agency workers in England, who are dissatisfied with the government’s offer of a 2% pay increase.
Workers argue that this offer is insufficient to cover the impacts of inflation and equates to a real terms pay cut of 20% since 2010.
Donna Rowe-Merriman, Unison’s Head of Environment, stated that workers at the agency have been forced to rely on food banks due to the low pay.
She further highlighted that last week, the lowest two grades in the agency received an emergency pay uplift to meet the national living wage of £9.53 per hour.
The average salary and benefits for an Environment Agency worker is £36,508, while more than 30% of roles in the lowest four bands earn less than £30,000, according to Unison.
Unison also claimed that no government ministers have engaged in pay talks with them, although a spokesperson from the government’s environment department, Defra, stated that “representatives are involved” without confirming ministerial attendance at the talks.
Some of the striking Environment Agency workers spoke to our reporter anonymously, citing concerns about repercussions as their contracts place limits on speaking to the media. Tom, an Environment Agency worker in the South East who participated in a previous walkout, highlighted the challenges of low pay, which makes it difficult to recruit staff and results in increased workload for existing employees.
He emphasized the need for a pay rise that properly values the important work done by Environment Agency workers in keeping communities safe.
Environment Agency workers are classified as “category 1 responders,” which means they are responsible for attending emergencies that pose a threat to life, such as floods, fires, and pollution incidents.
They are on 24/7 emergency rotas in addition to their regular day jobs. However, with fewer volunteers, the agency has had to reduce its response to category 3 and 4 incidents.
Graham Macro, an installations officer at the Environment Agency and union representative for Prospect union, which is also planning to strike next month, explained that people are choosing not to volunteer for these shifts, and those who do are often doing it to supplement their income.
He added that Prospect and Unison have coordinated their strikes on different days to ensure safety for communities. Since 2001, the Environment Agency has responded to 1,490 major incidents that could pose a serious threat to human health.
Voluntary weekend workers from the Environment Agency clean up the Poole Harbor oil spill earlier this month. Image: PA MEDIA
A former senior manager at the Environment Agency, who spoke to our reporter anonymously, revealed that low pay has resulted in colleagues leaving for other jobs, and the agency is struggling with recruitment.
He explained that pollution monitoring teams in his area have been “slashed” in half over the past decade.
Rivers monitoring plays a crucial role in the government’s new Water Plan, which aims to ensure clean and plentiful water.
The plan includes targets for the Environment Agency to take action against water company sewage spills. As part of the plan, the agency has been allocated an additional £2.2 million per year for enforcement, representing a 2.4% increase on its current grant.
However, the overall enforcement budget of the Environment Agency has been significantly reduced over the years, from £170 million in 2009-10 to £76 million in 2019-20. Mark Lloyd, CEO of Rivers Trust, emphasized that the allocated funds should be used to support day-to-day monitoring by teams, which could help prevent spills and reduce the need for enforcement measures.
He expressed concerns about the reduction in the number of monitoring sites and the frequency of monitoring, which has limited the agency’s ability to improve the health of rivers.