London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 26, 2025

‘A kick in the teeth’: British Gas engineers face losing their jobs or longer working hours

‘A kick in the teeth’: British Gas engineers face losing their jobs or longer working hours

Bitter ‘fire and rehire’ battle as hundreds of staff bear the brunt of firm’s commercial decline
Hundreds of engineers could be dismissed from the country’s biggest energy supplier by the end of the week as a bitter nine-month battle in the UK’s latest “fire and rehire” debacle reaches its climax.

The standoff between British Gas executives and trade union representatives at GMB will come to a head on 1 April, when scores of the engineers responsible for servicing and repairing office and home boilers will be forced to accept longer working hours or lose their jobs entirely.

“For the last nine months it has been the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep. The pressure we’re under is terrible,” says one veteran British Gas engineer. Chris, 51, has worked for the company since 1987 but asked not to be named in full because he may be forced to accept the new terms and remain at the company to support his family.

“Honestly, it’s made me ill. It’s made everybody ill. We just can’t understand how badly we’ve been treated – why?”

The tougher terms affect the entire 20,000 strong British Gas workforce, but its 7,500 service engineers – who carry out repairs for 3.6m customers who use British Gas for servicing their machines – fear they will take a disproportionate toll on their lives and livelihoods. British Gas claims that the percentage which have accepted the changes are in “the high 90s” – leaving up to 1,000 to face a stark choice in the days ahead.

“A kick in the teeth is probably the best way to put it,” says Ciara Arrowsmith, 37, who resigned from British Gas in protest last month after 13 years as a service and repair engineer in Sunderland. “I was always very loyal to the company, but I felt that what they were doing was immoral,” she says.

British Gas set out the fire and rehire plans last summer as part of a formal consultation process with trade unions. The company said it hoped to “streamline” its employment contracts, and increase productivity, to help rescue the business from the risk of financial ruin. Trade unions said the plan amounted to “bullying” by threatening to “set fire to jobs, terms and conditions”.

“It just became a really toxic atmosphere. I felt completely betrayed and it wasn’t good for my mental health. I had to go on to medication, but now I’m off,” says Arrowsmith. “It was just the uncertainty of what it was going to mean for the future because I’ve got two young children. There are loads of people with young kids, with carer responsibilities. This strike was not about money, it was about time.”

Under the new terms, full-time engineers would be required to work an extra three hours a week, 40 hours in total, and would not be paid a higher rate to work when required on weekends and public holidays.

“It’s a sad state of affairs,” says another British Gas engineer, wary of using his full name. Paul, 45, has worked for British Gas in the London area since the early 1990s. He reluctantly accepted the company’s new terms last week (“two kids, big mortgage”) but has continued to picket with union members to protest the company’s heavy handed threats.

“Most engineers have been with the company for a minimum of 10 years, going up to 40 years. We all have British Gas ingrained in us. If you cut us in half, you can read British Gas right the way through,” he says.

Before the dispute erupted, many engineers had continued to fix home boilers and heating systems through the first wave of the pandemic, in full PPE, and had half-thought the company might “give us a pat on the back for that, that we might get a bonus”, says Paul. “Then you find out that behind the scenes they have been plotting to effectively rip up our contracts.”

He blames the company for allowing inefficiency to creep in, and expecting frontline engineers to bear the brunt of the decade-long commercial decline, which has sunk profits to record lows.

“This is certainly not a position anyone wants to be in,” says Chris O’Shea, chief executive of Centrica, parent company of British Gas. “How did we get here? Our business has been declining for a number of years. We’ve lost a million customers in the last 10 years. Our productivity has declined substantially.”

The group’s full-year earnings tumbled by more than a third to an all-time low of £80m last year, a fraction of the supplier’s record-high annual profits of £742m reported 10 years ago, before a steady decline which toppled its parent company from the FTSE 100.

The decline of British Gas, once a jewel in the crown of Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation agenda, has accelerated as an army of nimble energy supply start-ups increased their market share by offering rock-bottom deals. Meanwhile British Gas boiler repairs and servicing have been eroded by a fleet of local “white van” engineers and repair experts, who can also afford to undercut British Gas rates.

“Our costs are between one-third and one-half higher than the person with a white van, and that is an unsustainable position,” says O’Shea. “Without change we would continue to decline. So I took the decision to engage with all four of our trade unions – Unite, Unison, Prospect and GMB – to discuss this and seek a negotiated settlement. And we managed to achieve one with all but the GMB. It’s deeply regrettable. But it’s about the long-term sustainability of our business,” he says.

“We’ve tried as hard as we can to be fair. The vast majority are with us. There’s still time for everyone to join us too. But everyone’s got their own choice, and I feel strongly that everyone has to make the right decision for them and their families,” O’Shea says.

For workers at British Gas, faced with a choice between working for less and unemployment, there are less than three days left to decide.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
×