Thwaites Brewery (Blackburn)

Basic salaries for manual workers and office staff increased by 3.5% from 1 April. Examples of the new rates are set out below. Under the agreement, "inconvenience" payments now stand at £1,100 for 5/7 shift working (five days in any seven), £2,200 for two-shift patterns and £3,300 for three shift, with a payment of £1,800 for the scheduled weekend working rota. Any group required, as part of a weekend working rota, to provide operational cover for any of the three recognised public holidays (25 and 26 December, and 1 January), is eligible for an additional £125 per occasion for each individual working. Other bank holidays are regarded as normal working days and basic holiday entitlement is 30 days plus the three recognised bank holidays.

For manual workers, skill payments of £1,000 are payable for each module, as an unconsolidated supplement paid on the anniversary of the module being achieved. There is also a rest day working pay element built into the salaries of certain groups to cover the eventuality of having to work on a number of rest days (usually Saturday or Sunday), in four-hour attendances. Under the April 2000 agreement rest day working payments range from £250 in brewing and fermenting to £625 in the packaging cask/keg/can warehouse, reflecting the number of occasions when these employees may be required to work on rest days.

Annual salaries

Grade A (office staff) 26,522 - 37,131

Grade E (office staff) 8,487 - 15,913

Brewing & fermenting/ 19,665

beer processing

Warehouse 17,078

Driver 19,665

Mate 18,630

Engineering technician 23,546

Engineering plant attendant 17,336