Seven hundred Heinz workers at the business’ Wigan factory have been given a pay rise.
Workers at the facility, in Kitt Green, have been given a pay increase of 5.5% on their base rates, with two further one-off payments worth £1,200 to help with the cost of living crisis.
The deal – which also includes an extra three days off during the Christmas period – will see the workers given one immediate payment of £500, with a second £700 payment to follow in January 2023. Neither of the payments will be subject to national insurance or income tax deductions.
Negotiations were led by Unite the Union, which said the total value of the rise and payments was worth 11% on average to workers’ yearly wages. A Heinz spokeswoman confirmed the decision was “reached as part of our annual negotiations process”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called it “a great result for our members at Heinz and a win for the local Unite reps”.
It marks the latest in a series of pay increases for workers at big fmcg manufacturers including Barry Callebaut, which gave some 200 workers at its Banbury, Oxfordshire factory a 10% pay rise earlier this month, and Cadbury, which signed a two-year pay deal with Unite in July that the union said would be worth an increase of up to 17.5% for more than 1,000 workers at its sites in Bournville, Birmingham, Chirk, Wales and Marlbrook.
However, it comes as fellow union GMB is mounting strike action at Budweiser’s production site at Samlesbury, near Preston, with approximately 275 of the union’s members set to walk out in a dispute over pay from 22 to 29 August.
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