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Employees at Imperial Tobacco in Nottingham have commenced taking industrial action against the company's decision to pass on the cost of the city council's workplace parking levy.
According to union GMB, the action comprises an overtime ban that began at midnight on 30 April and will last a week, followed by an indefinite work-to-rule action where employees will only carry out the minimum amount of work required of them.
GMB claimed that Imperial intends to pass on the annual £192 plus VAT charge to employees. However, the firm said that it will only pass on £120, which would be tax-free for staff and equate to a net annual cost of around £80 per person, or £1.50 a week.
Imperial also stated that employees willing to participate in one voluntary day of training relevant to the business or a day's work for a registered charity of their choice would be exempt from the charge.
But GMB regional officer Chris Needham responded that while employees had been asked to do 20 hours of voluntary work in exchange for payment of the WPL, it wasn't worth the equivalent time in pay.
Imperial claimed the action would have "limited impact on operations", but Needham countered: "Imperial works on the goodwill of our members. They're losing the usual flexibility and that will impinge on the company.
"When you've got a CEO who brags he could pay his employees 10 times as much then you can see the ilk of the people we're dealing with."
Needham also told BusinessCar that both GMB and the Unite union, which collectively represent more than 540 workers at Imperial, had balloted for joint action.
"GMB members feel it is outrageous that a company that makes £608 million profit won't even consider paying this car parking levy. Particularly as 55 minutes of production would produce enough profit to pay the charge for all Imperial Tobacco's employees," he said.
A spokesman for Imperial said that while its "reasonable and practical approach goes beyond that of many other organisations in the city, including the council itself," it was also the case that they believed that "the council's parking place levy is unfair, particularly on our employees whose daily commute will not benefit from the public transport initiatives it is intended to fund because of the location of our factory".
A spokesman for Nottingham City Council told BusinessCar: "The business community has always been opposed to the levy.
"The difficulty they've had is to weigh that up against development, which includes a redeveloped railway station, widening of the A453 and two new tram lines, which the levy will contribute towards."
The Nottingham WPL is estimated to bring in £14 million a year over a 23-year period. According to the council, annual revenue is expected to be around £9 million a year in the scheme's early years but currently stands at around £8 million.
This follows reports that the WPL is likely to bring in around £2 million a year less than expected, as local businesses have registered 10,000 fewer parking spaces than the council originally anticipated.
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