British Gas parent company Centrica is facing calls for a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigation after provoking a strike that has left its ‘HomeCare’ customers without cover.
A high number of households have been disrupted by the dispute so far and GMB understands those waiting for service number more than 100,000 across the country.
Stockport MP Navendu Mishra has this week written to the FCA calling for an investigation into Centrica for “engineering an employment situation which results in the insurance cover that customers purchased in good faith not being honoured.”
It coincides with the national dispute as thousands of GMB members at British Gas set from January 20th to take further strike action over the company’s threats to fire and rehire its workforce.
The MP calls on the FCA to use its powers under the Financial Services Act to investigate Centrica’s failure to provide customers with cover during the period and the question of whether the possibility of industrial action was adequately conveyed by the company to consumers when it sold them the insurance.
Despite the employer’s threat to ‘fire and rehire’ workers who did not accept the inferior terms and conditions, 86 per cent of GMB members voted in early December to reject the company’s proposal. 89 per cent of members subsequently voted to take industrial action.
Navendu Mishra, Labour MP for Stockport, said:
“I am deeply concerned by the dangerous precedent being set by Centrica as an insurance provider engineering an employment situation which results in the cover that customers purchased in good faith not being honoured.
“The FCA has powers under the Financial Services Act to investigate Centrica’s failure to fulfil its insurance obligations. It should use them to uncover the number of customers, including my constituents, who will be left without protection and clarify whether the possibility of industrial action was adequately conveyed to consumers when it sold them the insurance.
“Centrica needs to be held accountable for the way it has treated its staff and its customers.”
