GMB trade union said on Tuesday that workers at Centrica’s British Gas will be staging a second series of five one-day strikes in protest over proposed changes to work conditions.

GMB said its members would strike on Jan. 20, Jan. 22, Jan. 25, Jan. 29, and Feb. 1, and the issue is said to be about plans made by Centrica to “fire and rehire” and cuts to workers’ pay and terms.

As per the report from GMB, around 7,000 Centrica employees participated in a strike last week, most of which were engineers and a few call staff. It also said it expects a similar number for the second round of strike action.

Five days of strike action was carried out by workers against the proposals at the beginning of January. 27,000 people were employed at Centrica at the end of 2019.

Centrica last year canceled its dividend and announced plans to cut about 5,000 jobs, almost 20% of its global workforce, and said it would change the terms of worker contracts, as the utility stepped-up restructuring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid diminishing customers.

GMB said British Gas workers rejected the “fire and rehire” pay cuts with an astounding 89% vote supporting strike action.

Centrica said over 83% of its employees have already accepted the company's new terms.

“This shows most of our people understand that our business needs to change because customer needs are changing,” a Centrica spokesperson told via email.