Sean McKeever, Unite

Manderley Food Group attempt to avoid paying National Living Wage through offsetting against bonus is disgraceful

Tandragee workforce being disadvantaged relative to workers in other parts of United Kingdom

March 21st: Sean McKeever, Unite officer for production and packaging workers at Tayto in Tandragee has confirmed his union will proceed to ballot members over the refusal of owner, Manderley Food Group, to increase basic pay to the ‘National Living Wage’:

“Manderley Food Group is behaving with complete disrespect to their Tayto workforce. Management are attempting to avoid raising basic pay to the new ‘National’ Living Wage rate by counting a weekly bonus payment made entirely separate to the basic wage.

“This represents a fundamental break with their longstanding approach, which was to peg the wage at five pence above the current legal minimum.

“This is disgraceful behaviour from a group who only days ago announced that their pre-tax profits for 2015 had surged to exceed seven million pounds. The four directors of this company, including the wealthy Hutchinson family members, were paid more than £1.7 million last year in director fees alone and their wealth was estimated in the 2016 Rich List at £67 million. This is a company that can well afford to raise its workers the new ‘National’ Living Wage.

“Unite will be balloting our members for strike action in the face of this insult. It is likely that any strike action will cause significant disruption to the production of Tayto crisps but also own-brand products for the multiples.

“We are asking management to adopt a more enlightened approach to their Northern Ireland workers who have the right to demand equal treatment to workers from other parts of the United Kingdom”, Mr McKeever concluded.