British Gas faces the threat of a strike after workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in response to the energy giant’s “fire and rehire” plans. More than two-thirds of GMB’s 10,000 union members took part in the consultative ballot, which secured a 95% majority in favour of striking, raising the risk of a formal strike ballot within months. The vote underlines deepening tensions between Britain’s largest energy supplier and union representatives, who have accused British Gas of forcing its 20,000 employees to accept worse employment contracts or lose their jobs. Centrica, the beleaguered owner of British Gas, has been in talks with unions to simplify the employment contracts it uses across its workforce, alongside its plans to cut 5,000 jobs to help the struggling energy company survive the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The company has promised employees that the company would only seek to terminate existing contracts and offer fresh terms, known as a section 188 notice, as a last resort if the challenging talks with unions fell apart. But GMB said the company had already “burned through the confidence of its loyal workforce” by threatening to “set fire to jobs, terms and conditions”. Justin Bowden, GMB’s national secretary, said the 19-to-1 vote “demonstrates GMB members are not prepared to tolerate fire and rehire threats” and called on the company “to listen and get real”. “It’s time for the Centrica board to wake up and smell the gas,” he said. “Centrica’s problems were not caused by the loyal engineers, call-centre workers and back-office staff who have done everything asked of them over years of boardroom mismanagement, but yet again it’s their jobs that are in the firing line.” British Gas has lost about 1 million customers in the last two years and Centrica reported a £1bn loss for 2019 before scrapping its shareholder dividend and warning investors there would be a steep slump in revenues in 2020. As a result Centrica slumped out of the FTSE 100 earlier this year after a five-year slide in its market value due to the fierce competition in the energy market from a string of cut-price energy supply start-ups. A spokesperson for Centrica said the company was committed to reaching a negotiated settlement with union representatives “but simplifying and modernising working practices and their terms is essential if we’re to become more flexible in delivering for our customers. “We know that change can be very difficult and we are doing all we can to support our people – but we urgently need to act now to win back customers, grow our company and protect more jobs in the long run,” the spokesperson added.