Workers at a Pilgrim’s Food Masters facility in the UK have agreed a new deal on pay, ending an industrial dispute.
News of the contract at the site in Northern Ireland, announced by trade union Unite, comes a week after the manufacturer announced that it plans to close a factory in west London. The move will affect 260 jobs.
Officials at the Unite union said the £1.02 ($1.29) raise for staff at the factory in Northern Ireland represents an increase of “up to 9.3%” for the lowest-paid employees at the plant, which is located in Enniskillen.
The union said the increase will be worth 9.3% to production workers currently paid £11.00 an hour. For team leaders, the raise is worth 7.6% and 5.6% for engineers.
Unite added the new contracts will take effect from next month.
Last month, officials rejected an initial offer and started preparations for a strike ballot. The union said Pilgrim’s Food Masters made an “improved” offer on 19 March.
“Pilgrims is a highly profitable and rapidly expanding company whose success is built from the efforts of its employees. Workers have succeeded in obtaining an above-inflation pay improvement and a significant improvement on what was initially offered through their readiness to take strike action,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.
Just Food has approached Pilgrim’s Food Masters, which is owned by US meat group Pilgrim’s Pride, for comment.
The site in London facing closure is on Dean Way in Southall.
Last March, the trade union said 1,000 employees at another site in the UK capital had been “threatened with the sack if they did not accept losing paid breaks, reduced sick pay and the removal of Diwali holiday pay” at Pilgrim’s Food Masters. The manufacturer withdrew the threat, GMB said.
That row came just four months after Pilgrim’s Food Masters announced plans to close another site in Southall, with the potential loss of more than 200 jobs. It cited “difficult headwinds” and the “inflationary environment” for that decision.
