A dispute over pay at Bakkavor’s factory in Spalding is continuing.
In the latest twist, Unite The Union has lodged a formal complaint with the employer to the Ethical Trading Initiative.
It has been on strike since September and claims Bakkavor is paying ‘poverty wages’ and says the rise its seeking ‘amounts to just two per cent’ of the company’s profits.
Bakkavor has released a statement saying that is untrue.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Bakkavor’s utter unwillingness to negotiate and to attempt to break a lawful strike has left Unite with no choice. Not only are we telling their customers about their unethical behaviour, but we will target companies that continue to do business with them.
“Bakkavor need to understand that Unite is ramping up our campaign to win fair pay for our members.
“Major UK supermarkets like M&S claim to care about their workforce and those of their suppliers. Well it is now clear that they cannot continue to pretend it is business as usual with a company like Bakkavor who treats its workers so badly.”
Mike Edwards, CEO of Bakkavor responded: “As highlighted in our trading update, Unite has failed to disrupt our business, despite their continued strike action in the face of a very strong and improved final offer that has been put on the table.
“As with their run of emotive and false claims – for example, disruption to Christmas food supply, ‘years of real term pay cuts’ and that ‘the majority of the workforce only earn 10p above the National Living Wage’ – their new tactic of claiming that we are breaching ethical trading regulations is also untrue.”
“In September, Bakkavor put forward an improved offer of 7.8 per cent to its lowest paid colleagues and 6.4 per cent across all other grades. Over the past three years, CPI* in the UK has grown by 21 per cent: At our Spalding site over the same three-year period, the pay rate has risen by between 21.2 per cent and 22.8 per cent for colleagues – above inflation for the period.
“Furthermore, we think it useful to confirm as a matter of fact that the cost of labour at Spalding is the highest across all our UK sites – something that sits at the very heart of the problem with Unite’s position on this matter.”
“Given our significant efforts to engage in meaningful negotiations and the strong offer we put forward, Unite’s ongoing calls for rejection made it obvious that the 2024 collective bargaining process was exhausted.
“Therefore, we lawfully proceeded to offer colleagues the proposed pay offer on an individual basis.”
