Workers at scandal-hit Fujitsu to strike over pay as firm faces calls to repay ‘fortune’ spent on Post Office scandal
11 January 2024, 08:56 | Updated: 11 January 2024, 08:57
Fujitsu workers in the UK are to go on strike in a row over pay after being offered a rise that is a fraction of their Japanese counterparts.
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More than 300 workers will walk out on January 17.
The PCS union said UK workers were offered a raise of between 3-4% while workers in Japan were offered as much as 29%.
The development come as the firm faces calls to foot the compensation bill for victims of the Horizon Post Office Scandal.
There are also calls to block Fujitsu from picking up any further Government contracts and to repay a ‘fortune’ if it is found culpable.
If the statutory inquiry into the saga finds the “scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine”, the Government would want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer”, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said.
Rishi Sunak says hundred of sub postmasters in England and Wales could have their names cleared by the end of the year.
Those whose convictions are quashed are eligible of a compensation payment of £600,000 or possibly more if they go through an individual assessment.
The PM is facing pressure to pursue Fujitsu to foot the bill for the payments.
The PCS Union says the strike action is a separate issue to the Horizon scandal.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Why is the UK government giving Fujitsu lucrative contracts when the company treats its UK workers so badly?”
Fujitsu made £22 million in UK profit last year.
Hundreds of Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the technology giant's flawed Horizon accounting system.
The firm has been awarded government contracts worth billions in recent years and its continued involvement in major IT schemes has raised concerns at Westminster.
Ministers tried to prevent Fujitsu getting more official work but this proved "impossible" despite its "woeful" performance, a Tory peer revealed on Wednesday.
Lord Maude of Horsham, who served as Cabinet Office minister under David Cameron, said procurement rules thwarted ministers' efforts.
He said if Fujitsu had "any sense of honour" it would swiftly make a significant payment towards the compensation of wrongly convicted subpostmasters.
The long-running battle for justice accelerated dramatically after ITV broadcast the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which highlighted the scandal earlier this month.
The public inquiry, whose first hearing of the year on Thursday will feature Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw, is set to keep the scandal in the headlines.
Mr Bradshaw has been described as having a "heavy footprint" in the scandal after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters.
MPs were told on Wednesday that previous evidence from the inquiry had pointed to "not only incompetence but malevolence" in the way the Post Office acted against them.
