Premier Foods hopes for positive outcome from pay ballot
Staff at Premier Foods-owned Charnwood Foods, which produces pizza bases for restaurant chain Pizza Hut as well as a number of other customers, are being balloted on a pay offer.
According to the Bakers and Allied Food Workers’ Union (BFAWU), staff have been offered a three-year deal with a proposed 1% pay rise for 2017, 2% for 2018 and 2.5% for 2019.
A ballot of BFAWU’s 40 members at the factory is set to take place on Friday, 15 March 2018, when they will choose to accept or reject the offer.
A Premier Foods spokesman said: “We are having constructive conversations with the BFAWU as part of our site pay discussions and we remain hopeful of reaching an amicable agreement.”
Disgruntled
However, Lucasz Bemka, regional organising secretary at BFAWU, said he believed its members were “disgruntled” with the offer, especially in the wake of the uncertainties over Brexit.
Bemka said the site was one of the most profitable parts of Premier Foods and the offer would bring salaries only just above the National Living Wage.
“This 1% is not going to cover inflation and locking them into a three-year deal is something we can’t accept,” Bemka told Food Manufacture.
“Once it is rejected and we have a mandate from members, we will organise a meeting between the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), the union and the company.”
Strike action
He admitted that if this was unable to resolve the pay deal, it would consider balloting for strike action.
The company published its third-quarter results in January, which were boosted by partnerships with Nissin Foods Group and Mondelēz International. Group sales were up 4% to £261.4m for the 13 weeks ending 30 December 2017. In the same month the company quashed rumours that it planned to sell its Bachelors brand to key shareholder Nissin Foods Holdings.
