Greencore staff agree to new shift patterns at Hull
Greencore, which warned that jobs would have to go in Hull following the loss of a supermarket contract earlier this year, had originally proposed switching to a continental ‘four (12-hour) days on, four days off’ shift pattern in an attempt to reduce costs and minimise the number of redundancies.
After this was rejected by members of the Unite union working at the site, a new seven-day, eight-hour shift pattern ensuring staff would work only one weekend a month was put forward. Under this deal, which union members have just approved, staff will not get premium rates for working on weekends or bank holidays, but will get a 2% rise in basic pay.
A Greencore spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: "Greencore, in conjunction with employee representatives including Unite, has assessed a number of different work patterns throughout the past 90-day consultation. A proposal was put forward for the site to become a seven-day operation, where colleagues work two weekend days in a four-week period.
"An agreement has been reached whereby our colleagues moved to the new shift patterns from June 1."
Bitter pill
It is understood that 87 jobs will now go at the site.
Ian Wood, regional organiser at the Unite union, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that volunteers would cover most of the proposed redundancies. "It's a bitter pill to swallow, but we understand that the alternative [to changes in the shift pattern] could have been closure."
In its first-half results published on May 25, Greencore said its cakes and desserts business had a “satisfactory first half in a difficult environment”.
It added: “The market has been driven significantly by promotional activity which, although driving sales growth, has impacted margins. Consumers generally have traded down in the category and reduced their purchasing frequency of higher tier lines.”
