The Unite union released a statement this week in which it revealed strike action scheduled for 29 May had been called off.

According to the union, this is because Unite had negotiated with management for the workers to be employed on permanent contracts. 

The deal also sees the workers benefit from a 5% pay rise backdated to 1 January 2018. They will also in future receive average holiday pay when taking all of their annual leave.

The union further claims the workers were operating on a ‘contract for services’ arrangement, which was effectively a zero-hours contract, denying them the vast majority of normal employment rights.

But Chris Pullen, CEO at outsourced workforce provider Staffline, disputes this.

He told Recruiter the contract is “entirely different” to zero-hours contracts, with workers entitled to many of the benefits permanent workers receive after a 12-week qualifying period under Agency Workers Regulations.

Pullen says the reason Pirelli used the agency workers in the past was so they can increase and decrease the size of their workforce according to their requirements.

According to Pullen, Pirelli recently changed their operating model meaning contractors and permanent workers alike are now engaged on 42 hours per week contracts, adding Staffline believes these changes have been driven by operational requirements.

Pullen added around 80 workers will transfer to the new contracts, but this has no impact on Staffline’s overall business.

Recruiter also contacted Pirelli for comment, but they had not responded by deadline.

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