URTU members employed by Wincanton working at the HJ Heinz factory near Wigan have voted in favour of industrial action following a pay dispute.

Should industrial action take place between Monday 2 June and Friday 5 June Wincanton has said that comprehensive contingency plans are in place to “ensure that the impact of strike action on customer service is negligible”.

A spokeswoman for Wincanton said: “We remain committed to an open dialogue with our employees and their representatives and we will continue to work towards a resolution of the dispute.”

She confirmed that URTU is the recognised trade union for our packaging team of 60 employees based at the Wigan distribution centre operated on behalf of Heinz. She also added that the company had been officially advised of their intention to strike between 05.45 on Monday 2 June and 05.45 on Thursday 5 June.

URTU said that its members, the majority of which are employed in the RePack department of the HJ Heinz factory, near Wigan, and the adjoining national DC are paid at the national minimum wage rate of £6.31.

It said that in June 2013 it presented a wage claim to Wincanton requesting that the basic wage for RePack workers should be increased in line with the ‘Living Wage’  which, at the time of the pay claim, was £7.45 for workers working outside of London and which has subsequently increased to £7.65.

As there was no settlement URTU balloted its members for taking industrial strike action in support of the Living Wage claim.

The Wincanton spokeswoman added that this industrial action followed an earlier ballot in which members voted to reject a pay offer proposed by Wincanton to take effect from 1 November 2013.

She also explained that Wincanton’s workforce at the site totals 344 employees and 284 of them are not involved in this dispute.

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