Bakkavor Pizza in Harrow, a supplier to well-known supermarket chains including Sainsburys and Waitrose, faces severe disruption to supplies after months of negotiations on pay ends with GMB members' rejection of a 5.9 per cent pay deal.
Bakkavor Pizza’s predominately female workforce from ethnic Asian communities say it is time they had a decent pay rise.
Last week, GMB members working for Bakkavor Pizza took part in an indicative strike ballot with 78 per cent of members rejecting the pay offer.
GMB will now take formal steps for a strike ballot that could mean pizza supplies will be severely disrupted for some of the high street’s popular supermarkets.
One Bakkavor GMB member says: “Bakkavor is advertising for evening shift staff at its Newark site, where the starting salary there is £12.07 an hour with free transport, the equivalent role at Bakkavor Pizza pays £11.14, and that includes a shift allowance.
“The London Living Wage is £11.95, but with the cost of living like it is we cannot accept the offer of 5.9 per cent, our pay claim is for 13.4 per cent, that is what we want.
Many of us relied on overtime but since the introduction of faster automated production, the opportunity for overtime that helped boost our pay is rare."
It’s not a good look for a large wealthy organisation to have some workers forced to turn to food banks because their rate of pay doesn’t cover their basic living cost.
Trevlyn McLeod, GMB London Region Organiser, says: “The Bakkavor Group reported an operating profit of £46.3m in its half-year report published on 6th September, so GMB can see no reason why Bakkavor will not offer our members a decent pay increase.
“This decision for a GMB mandate for industrial action has not been taken lightly or without consideration by our members, they are determined to give Bakkavor the message that they want a better deal.
Workers here believe they are worth more, they want their voices heard and that is why our membership numbers are increasing daily.
"Now that GMB has secured a strong mandate for Industrial action, it is hoped that Bakkavour Pizza at Harrow will finally recognise the value of their staff and how they have been impacted by the cost of living crisis and put forward an improved pay offer."
