Workers at a property maintenance firm in Rotherham are preparing to take strike action after the company announced it had derecognised Unite the Union.

Fortem, a subsidiary of Willmott Dixon which undertakes council housing maintenance and repair work, revealed it was derecognising the union as well as making around 20 staff redundant.

Unite said it will ballot its members for industrial action as the company has "refused to enter into any meaningful consultation" over the redundancies, which are principally in administration and managerial roles. Some of the work is also to be transferred from Rotherham to the company's head office in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

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The union added when it challenged Fortem on the matter, the company replied the union had been derecognised. Unite said it had been seeking to find alternatives to redundancy and to extend the pool from which workers could seek voluntary redundancy in order to avoid compulsory redundancies.

As well as meeting beginning the process of balloting for industrial action, Unite said it is also considering whether legal action could be taken against Fortem.

The union's Regional Officer, Shane Sweeting, said: "This is an outrageous attack on union rights by Fortem. Unite will be using all avenues open to it, whether that is industrial or legal, to get this decision overturned.

"Fortem is supplying services on behalf of Rotherham council and it is completely unacceptable that council taxpayer's money is being used to derecognise the union rather than repair tenants' homes.

"Unite will be lobbying Rotherham council to apply pressure on Fortem to reverse this decision.

"If industrial action does go ahead then tenants will be denied vital repairs and maintenance projects will be delayed, purely as a result of Fortem's misguided and ill-judged attack on Unite."

(LM)