Strike ballot over brewery restructuring

Brewery workers at Carlsberg in Northampton were voting on strike action over restructuring and pay as we went to press.

The brewery is currently moving to a multi-skilled flexible workforce, to start next January. But the T&G general union has argued that the regrading that goes with the restructuring process will amount to a pay freeze for many of the 180 staff.

Workers are being graded into developer or non-technician roles. The T&G says the developer grades will be paid a 2.3% increase, but non-technician grades will get nothing.

Restructuring in the company's Leeds brewery has seen only half the workforce put onto the higher-paid grade after two years.

The ballot closes on 19 November.