Smart Metering
UNITE THE UNION – SMART METERING
Unite are extremely concerned that
insufficient consideration has been given to the provision of a
skilled and competent workforce to undertake the smart meter
rollout programme.
If Government is serious in its aspiration
that the UK becomes a genuinely low carbon economy it is essential
that those competent operatives and backroom staff who will
ultimately be displaced at the conclusion of the rollout programme
are redeployed elsewhere in the industry to encourage the
development and take up of renewable energy and micro-generation.
Training strategies to facilitate this need to be in place now,
before those workers are lost to the
industry.
More immediately Unite have very real concerns
that the ultimate legacy of the smart meter rollout programme will
be not only the dilution of existing employment opportunities in
energy and utilities sector but the proliferation of shady
employment practices with little or no opportunity for
training.
Unite are therefore seeking an open and
transparent dialogue with all industry stakeholders to ensure that
the programme is delivered on time and on budget and generates the
maximum benefit to the UK economy and its workforce.
Click here for a copy
of Unite submission to the Department of Energy & Climate
Change
