Meat hygiene workers agree 2.99% pay deal

UNISON members in the meat hygiene industry voted in July to accept a deal of 2.99% backdated to August 2008. The agreement gives 5% to workers at the bottom of the pay scale. UNISON has also succeeded in retaining contractual overtime, including on sickness and holiday, though calculated on hours per week rather than by day. The deal also sees notice periods for changing shift patterns reduced to one month.

UNISON national officer Simon Watson said of the 18-month negotiations that members had defended their terms and conditions against “vicious proposals that would have taken us back to the time of Dickens.”