Centrica boss 'was posted excrement' in pay row

Chris O'Shea, the boss of British Gas owner Centrica, has said his family was posted excrement amid a pay row at the firm.

British Gas engineers held a five-day strike last month, followed by seven extra strike days, in what unions say is a response to an attempt by the firm to push through pay cuts by threatening to fire workers.

Mr O'Shea said that he understood what he was asking was "difficult".

But he told MPs he was "not immune" to the situation.

In June, Centrica said it planned to to cut about 5,000 jobs to "arrest the decline" of the company.

It has been losing customers to rivals and in February last year, it blamed a big loss in 2019 on a price cap for customers and falling gas prices.

It has asked some staff to sign new contracts. Centrica said 83% of workers had already accepted its new terms and conditions, which it said protected base pay and pensions.

Labour MP Judith Cummins told Mr O'Shea that the threat of being sacked if they refused to sign up to new terms was having an effect on the health of his workers. One wrote to her complaining of chest pains, body aches and shortness of breath.

"This person even took a Covid test because he though that was a reason," she said. "But it wasn't, it was anxiety because of this fire and rehire action you are taking."

Mr O'Shea told Parliament's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee the situation was affecting him too, and said he needed to save jobs.

"Undoubtedly what I'm asking people to do is difficult, I won't shy away from that," he said.

"However, my view is that I would rather do everything in my power to save the 20,000 jobs that we've got.

"I know this puts a lot of pressure on people. Only yesterday my wife and teenage son had a package of excrement delivered to them with a note about fire and rehire. This is something that affects absolutely everybody. I'm not immune to this."

He told Parliament that the police were involved with the situation.

Justin Bowden, national officer at the GMB union, said Centrica's workforce had a "history of change" and that relations between workers and the company's management would be friendlier if staff had not been confronted with job losses when asked to help with costs.

"The cart was put very much before the horse," he said. He said that it would be similar to the union voting for strike action before making its own pay proposals.

Mr O'Shea insisted that the company's £1bn net loss for 2019 showed that the company needed to make changes.

Mr Bowden countered that the company was fundamentally profitable and that it posted adjusted operating profit of £901m for 2019. This figure does not include some costs, but it is the measure of profit used by the company, according to its annual report.

Mr O'Shea said he was "committed" to working with unions to find a resolution.

Mr Bowden said that the level of pressure on employees was "unprecedented", but that he would engage with more talks.

Correction 6 April 2021: This article was amended to include mention of seven extra strike days called after the initial five-day action.