Striking Goodlord staff leave after ‘fire and rehire’ dispute

The industrial dispute involving Goodlord has ended with nine of the affected staff leaving the company after a lengthy strike.

The Unite union, representing some employees at the firm, said in the past that the company had a ‘fire and rehire’ policy within its London operation, seeking to re-employ staff on cheaper contracts at drastically reduced salary levels - slashed from £24,000 to £18,000.

The company has now issued a statement claiming that as the strike has lasted for more than 12 weeks and “a resolution has not been found” the nine people involved in the dispute have chosen not to return to work, and they will therefore be leaving the business.

The statement from the company - released last evening - says: “Despite months of negotiations and after multiple attempts to reach a resolution, it’s with a heavy heart that we announce that the nine people involved in the recent strike action have left the business.

“During the strike we held conciliation talks via ACAS where we explored every possible way of reaching a resolution. Our colleagues were offered a range of options to bring this dispute to an end. 

“Unfortunately, none of the options put forward were taken up by these nine individuals, who instead indicated an intention to continue indefinite strike action. We believe our team has now exhausted all possible options for resolution and, as these colleagues weren’t prepared to return to work, we have had to take the extremely difficult decision to end their employment. 

“The whole company is deeply saddened by this. Our objective from day one was to provide stable, permanent jobs for each of our much valued employees and it’s heartbreaking that our commitment to resolving this dispute collaboratively has not resulted in a more positive outcome.

“However, we do believe that this is now the only way for everyone involved to move forward. We wish our nine former colleagues the very best of luck in their next roles.” 

During the dispute, parody social media accounts referred to the company as Badlord.