Thousands of angry British Gas customers have written to the company, many vowing to switch to another energy supplier, unless it scraps plans to force its engineers to accept longer working hours or lose their jobs within weeks. More than 50,000 people have signed a petition against the controversial “fire and rehire” policy, which has led to months of bitter negotiations between British Gas executives and trade union representatives and weeks of strike action. At least 4,000 people have written directly to Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of the supplier’s parent company, Centrica, to complain about how the company has treated its 20,000-member workforce. British Gas set out the fire and rehire plans last summer in an attempt to improve the productivity of the engineers, who install and repair boilers and heating systems for the company’s 9 million service customers across the country. Employees had until 1 April to accept the new terms – which will increase their working hours and reduce pay for working on weekends and bank holidays – or face dismissal. The campaign group behind the petition, 38 Degrees, said many people had expressed concern that British Gas was setting a dangerous precedent for workers in the UK by resorting to a fire and rehire plan. Others expressed “overwhelmingly positive” experiences of British Gas engineers, particularly through the pandemic, “where staff put themselves at risk by entering people’s homes to keep their crucial utilities running”. Siobhan Harley, a director at 38 Degrees, said: “This outpouring of support from thousands of members of the public, including British Gas customers, demonstrates that British Gas, and companies like it, cannot hold their workers to ransom. “British Gas customers have made themselves perfectly clear: if the company continues down this path, they will switch providers. It’s as simple as that.” A spokesman for British Gas said “the whole basis for the petition is incorrect – there isn’t a 15% pay cut”. He declined to comment on how many dismissal notices had been sent, but added that more than 95% of British Gas employees have signed up to the new terms so far. Under the new contracts full-time engineers would be required to work an extra three hours a week, or 40 hours a week in total, and would not be paid a higher rate to work when required on weekends and public holidays. British Gas has promised to pay for the extra hours for two years and would then make this sum available as a performance bonus. Employees will have a two-week grace period to sign up to the new terms, meaning the final number of staff facing the sack will be known this month. Justin Bowden, the GMB’s national secretary, said: “Sacking his own highly skilled, qualified and experienced workers on 14 April … is the ultimate measure of failure from Mr O’Shea. “This dispute is far from over. It brings to mind the old adage that ‘any fool can start a war’. There is still time for Mr O’Shea to take the new date off the table.”