GMB Scotland opened the ballot on 5 September, with 12 engineers working at The Macallan Distillery, Glenrothes Distillery and Parkmore able to vote for the next three weeks.
The new rotas, which remove four-day working weeks, were imposed on the engineers by Edrington last month and have been described as ‘hugely disruptive’ by GMB Scotland.
The engineers have said that the changes will mean they work more days and be on-call for longer with no extra pay.
A consultative ballot showed strong support for industrial action among the engineers.
GMB Scotland organiser Lesley-Anne MacAskill described plans to remove four-day week working patterns as “absurd” at a time when other companies were embracing shorter weeks because of the benefits.
“Their legitimate concerns about these shift changes and the upheaval caused have been ignored by managers unwilling to seriously engage in negotiations or consider alternatives,” added MacAskill
“It is extreme course of action to needlessly provoke an industrial dispute by choosing conflict over communication and compromise.”
Edrington said it began consulting with the engineers in January about its need to bring their shifts in line with staff at its distilleries.
An Edrington spokesperson said: “We always work hard to keep a strong partnership with all our people, so it is disappointing that after months of talking to our engineering team and their representatives, the GMB has chosen to ballot on industrial action.
“These new working arrangements are essential in aligning the work of our engineering team with colleagues around the distillery and other sites. We have made a number of concessions and compromises to ensure that the new arrangements provide our people with both flexibility and certainty about working patterns.
“We will continue to be open to discussion with our people and their representatives to reach a pragmatic solution.”
