January 3, 2020 2.55 pm This story is over 50 months old

Jobs lost at Spalding salad factory

A pay dispute has also been resolved

Stock image of Bakkavor workers. Photo: Bakkavor

A fresh food business that supplies major supermarkets will make a number of redundancies at one of its factories in Spalding, but alternative roles have been secured for the “vast majority of people impacted by the change”.

As previously reported, around 250 jobs were at risk at Bakkavor Salads’ factory in Spalding, which supplies supermarkets including Aldi, the Co-op, Morrisons, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It proposed staff cuts at its factory on West Marsh Road.

Bakkavor Salads previously entered into a 45-day consultation period, which has now been completed and will result in a number of redundancies.

Alternative roles have been secured for the vast majority of people impacted by the change. The number of redundancies is said to be significantly lower than expected, but the exact number of job losses has not been officially revealed.

A statement read: “We can confirm that Bakkavor Salads has completed the consultation period and the proposal to reduce roles within one of its factories at Spalding is to go ahead.

“Whilst sadly we will lose some colleagues through redundancy in the New Year, we’ve successfully secured alternative roles for the vast majority of people impacted by the change and the number of redundancies is likely to be significantly lower than expected.

“We appreciate that this is an unsettling and difficult time for everyone affected and would like to stress that this decision in no way reflects the commitment and hard work of the employees at the site.”

Food workers at one of Bakkavor’s sites in Spalding, which focuses on making soups, sauces, dips and salads, previously prepared to walk out in protest over a 1.5% pay rise offer.

Bakkavor said at the time that the offer it had made represented “a highly competitive 3% in year total package increase”. This represents a 1.5% pay increase and 1.5% lump sum.

83% of workers who took part in the ballot voted for strike action. However, Bakkavor argued only 27% of all colleagues took part, which represents only 500 of the 1,800 workforce.

It has since been confirmed that the pay negotiations have all been resolved with Unite the Union with employees accepting the firm’s revised offer.