The 40 staff are said to be angry at management plans to ‘radically change’ their shift patterns, and also the threat of 10 job losses at the West Yorkshire plant that makes cakes and cake bars.
Unite, the country’s largest union, said that the company wants to introduce the shift changes on 1 May and that this has been prompted by contractual changes with major customer Mars that come into force on 1 April 2014.
The workers, currently earning about £24,500 per annum, have been told their current 24/7 shift patterns will be changed to a 24-hour shift system, Monday to Friday, with the workers being available for work on 17 Saturdays a year, but only being required for 11. This could see their pay packets slump by between £3,100 and £4,400 depending on overtime worked.
Unite regional officer Sarah Mitchell said: “This is a complex dispute with the management’s stated aim being to secure future production volumes and cut costs, which has been necessitated by the changes to the Mars contract.
“We have had lengthy talks with the company over the proposed changes. However, our members can’t afford to take a £3,000 ‘hit’ to their pay packets when household bills are going through the roof.
“The company is pressing ahead with the voluntary redundancy programme and the changes in the shift patterns regardless, and Unite will be consulting its members in the coming week about the next steps in this dispute.
“The possibility of industrial action can’t be ruled out at this stage, and we would urge the management to continue to talk to Unite about the situation that it finds itself in.”
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