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from The
Daily Mirror Friday 20 October 2000
STONY HEARTS .. STONY FACES
War graves pay talks end in
stalemate
FURIOUS war grave
gardeners last night accused their bosses of stonewalling them after a
crunch meeting over pay cuts ended in stalemate.
Chris Kaufman, of
the TGWU, whose members will lose up to 30 per cent of their pay under the
British War Graves Commission's plans to cut their allowances, said:
"They had stony hearts and stony faces."
Later Defence
Secretary Geoff Hoon, embarrassed by The Mirror championing the gardeners'
cause, ordered that the cuts be suspended pending a full inquiry. But the
77 gardeners said the 11th hour intervention was not enough.
Gardener Terry
Smithies, who will lose £7,500, said: "It just doesn't go far
enough. It seems like it is a political move which actually means very
little. Why doesn't he just overrule the War Graves Commission. It's all
very vague." They currently earn £10,500 to £13,500 but receive
top-up allowances for working abroad.
But many now fear
they will have to quit because the Commission wants to save money by
putting them on salaries only. It is not prepared to increase their
salaries to make up for the lost allowances.
Mr Hoon said last
night: "The evidence which led to the Commission deciding to make
these cuts will be examined."
But Mr Kaufman
said: "We are aghast that they are so insensitive. We are extremely
angry and will continue to fight on."
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