400 staff at food factory go on strike

400 STAFF from Sheffield-based Pennine Foods, owned by the 2 Sisters Group, have gone on strike over contract changes.

Staff say that the new contracts remove extra weekend pay and lieu days for working bank holidays and weekends, losing them around £5,000 a year, according to the BBC.

The strike was due to last from Thursday through to Saturday morning.

The factory employs 900 staff, and produces ready meals for Marks & Spencer. In April, the company was forced to deny that strike action was imminent over pay, as reported by foodmanufacture.co.uk. The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union said at the time that the company was attempting to offset Living Wage obligations by cutting pay elsewhere.

2 Sisters told the BBC they were “disappointed” with the strike action.

“We will be holding more talks to avert any further action, and have contingency plans in place to ensure production remains unaffected,” a statement said.

Last September 2 Sisters announced it would be investing £38m in rebuilding its Pennine Foods factory, as part of a £55m investment across its four sites.

The Sheffield site was established 30 years ago and has now reached capacity. The redevelopment is set to be concluded in 2017.

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