Greencore employees seek legal action after cyber attack

Members of staff were informed last month that the manufacturer was hit by a cyber attack at the end of 2021. Those responsible able to access current and former employee data such as their roles and salaries, as well as personal information such as bank account details and national insurance numbers.

Specialist data breach law firm Hayes Connor is now working with a group of employees affected by the attack and are now considering legal action against Greencore.

Hayes Connor legal specialist Christine Sabino said: “The information we have received is hugely concerning and further answers are clearly needed. Greencore claims there is no evidence that data has been misused, but there is no way to tell for certain that this is the case – no guarantees can be provided about the future either.​

Employee concerns ​

“This company employs thousands of people across a range of sites, but no real indication has been provided on how many have been affected. While we have heard first-hand from a number of people worried by these developments, there will likely be many more who are also concerned about what has happened.”​

Sabino said incidents like this warranted significant investigation and enquiries into the case were being made by the law firm to ensure its clients got the “answers and justice they deserve”.​

A Greencore spokesman said it took matters of data security “extremely seriously”​ and had prepared for potential IT incidents of this type, knowing that they were on the rise.

“In December 2021 Greencore was subject to such an IT security incident but we were able to follow our incident response planning, taking immediate action to contain the incident and secure our systems. We have therefore been notifying those involved, which does include our current and former employees. ​

Support for those affected ​

“We’ve been working hard to ensure they are fully supported by the business, offering free access to credit and/or identity monitoring services for twelve months and putting in place a team to answer questions they may have. This support is still available and we encourage anyone we have notified to contact us for further support.”​

The fallout of the data breach followed a strong set of full year results for Greencore,​​ with new business, strong food-to-go and wider convenience sales helping the group return to profit and revenue growth.

Greencore said early trading in the current financial year was encouraging and that as mobility increases towards pre-pandemic levels, there was strong demand in food-to-go and other convenience categories. However, it admitted it was being impacted by the supply chain and labour challenges affecting the whole industry.

Meanwhile, last month, KP Snacks announced it was 'working on plans to keep our products stocked and on shelves' after being hit by a cyberattack.​​