Fox’s staff to vote in strike ballot
The 600 Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) members at the sites in Batley, West Yorkshire and Kirkham, Preston are voting on a proposal for a 24-hour strike. This could be followed by a week’s overtime ban from 7.01pm and further 24-hour strikes from next Wednesday, once a week for a total of five weeks.
BFAWU regional organising secretary Geoff Atkinson told FoodManufacture.co.uk that Fox’s owner 2 Sisters was trying to impose “draconian” changes to terms and conditions at the sites, in exchange for a pay rise that was below the rate of inflation at the time pay negotiations started.
He claimed the company wanted to cut overtime payments to time-and-a-half, pay Bank Holidays at normal day rates, reduce sickness pay by a third, and change redundancy terms so that staff were entitled only to statutory minimums.
Redundancy terms
“2 Sisters is offering a 3% pay rise in year one and a 2.15% rise in year two, but although the year starts in April, the year one pay will only be backdated to July 29,” said Atkinson. “When we started negotiating in December, 3% was below the rate of inflation.”
He explained that members had been balloted for industrial action, on the back of the 3% for one year offer. They had voted in favour of this by a significant majority.
There followed talks through the Arbitration and Conciliation Advisory Service, at the request of the union, where the company added an extra year to its pay offer, he claimed.
This is offer staff are voting on today, with the ballot due to close at 12 noon.
Atkinson said: “Talks have not really been constructive. 2 Sisters is billing its offer as a 5.5% pay increase, but it is trying to cut the terms and conditions which have been fought for over many years. Someone who has worked for the company for many years and is made redundant might lose thousands in redundancy payments if they were made redundant.”
Agency staff
Fox’s Biscuits has three sites in the UK. Between them the two sites set for strike action employ 1,100 people, although many are agency staff.
Fox’s third site is the Uttoxeter site in Staffordshire. Unlike the other two factories, this makes own-label rather than branded biscuits.
Staff in Uttoxeter have not been balloted for industrial action.
A spokesman for Fox’s Biscuits, told FoodManufacture.co.uk: "We've been working hard this week to brief unions and employee representatives about our amended and very attractive two-year pay offer now on the table and we remain hopeful of securing a workable outcome.
"A minority −fewer than 20% − at Batley and Kirkham voted to strike and Fox’s will remain open for business should any industrial action take place.
"The low level changes proposed alongside our pay offer are necessary to help ensure the viability of Fox’s and sustain jobs, in a tough biscuits market, which is seeing much slower growth. We hope to see a positive outcome from the union ballot later today."
