Vet Company Responds to Strikes By Simply Closing Branches

A private-equity owned veterinary practice is facing allegations of union-busting, after it announced plans to close the first vet surgeries to take industrial action in the UK.

On 15 October, the veterinary group Valley Vets said that all four of its south Wales surgeries would be permanently shut, with only its hospital in Gwaelod y Garth remaining open.

Workers allege that the shuttering of the only unionised veterinary practices in the UK is a direct response to the long-running dispute at the surgeries over low pay, poor working conditions, and high fees for clients.

Beginning on 16 July, workers at the group have taken over six weeks of strike action. Staff are striking for a 10% pay increase for the lowest paid support staff, a 5% increase for nurses and 2.5% for vets. VetPartners, which is valued at an estimated £3bn, says it has no “capacity to increase the pay levels further.”

Valley Vets – owned by VetPartners, who in turn are owned by private equity firm BC Partners – cited “an acute shortage of vets,” the need to reduce the use of locum vets, and a desire to make the practice “more sustainable” as the reasons behind the sudden closures.

In September, with only one 24-hour strike scheduled, Valley Vets announced that the “uncertainty” of possible future strike action meant they would keep the four branch practices shut until at least the new year. Workers, who are members of the British Veterinary Union (BVU), called this an attempt to “break the strike.”

Valley Vets bosses finally agreed to meet with union reps on 15 October. The meeting was supposed to be a return to negotiations, but instead bosses simply read out a pre-prepared statement announcing that the four striking branches would now be permanently closed. As the statement was being read out, the veterinary group began contacting workers at the four sites to let them know that they were being made redundant.

Staff accuse VetPartners of seeking to make an example of Valley Vets to discourage staff at other veterinary practices from unionising.

One member of staff from Valley Vets, who asked that Novara Media not use their name for fear of retaliation, said: “This is a punitive action. Their intention is to, at some point, point to the smouldering ruins and say, ‘look what the union’s done.’”

As well as shuttering four practices, Valley Vets have been accused of “implying threats” to the registration of striking vets. All Vets and Vet Nurses must be registered with the professions’ regulator, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).

A spokesperson for Unite said: “Unite officials met with the RCVS following concerns raised by our members that managers at Valley Vets and Vet Partners were implying threats towards their registration for taking part in lawful industrial action. There was also an instance where a trade union rep was reported to the RCVS by a manager at Valley Vets during the dispute, this however was very quickly dismissed.

“The regulator should not be used as a threatening mechanism. This is yet another example of shameful behaviour by the employer promoting a culture of bullying and fear. Members have unanimously voted to take part in lawful industrial action. The right thing to do would be to get back around the table and attempt to resolve the dispute as any reasonable employer would.

In August, the VetPartners head of HR threatened to call the police on a peaceful demonstration of 20 staff at the group’s York headquarters. One worker told Novara Media that given the peaceful nature of the protest, the threat left them “nonplussed,” adding “we would have preferred an offer to talk and a cup of tea.” 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that “rather than address the concerns its Valley Vets workers’ have at workers using foodbanks and pet owners putting their animals down because they can’t afford treatment, it shuts surgeries to try and silence them.”

Since the strike, national membership of the BVU, part of Unite, has almost doubled.

Suzanna Hudson-Cooke, chair of the BVU said: “We believe VetPartners would like these closures to scare veterinary workers across the sector away from unionisation, but we feel it is having the opposite effect, and more and more veterinary workers are emboldened to join the union every day.”

Allegations of union busting come after the dispute has become increasingly bitter.

In August, a non-striking Valley Vets worker smeared a wall outside the practice where the picket line convened with medical lubricant. A worker told Novara Media that “led to damage to strikers clothes but moreover made union members feel they were the intended target of humiliating and intimidating acts.” A grievance investigation found that management took “appropriate” action.

Valley Vets declined to comment on this story.