Weetabix staff voting on strike action over pay row

Workers are threatening to walk out at Weetabix over pay and conditions

A ballot has opened on whether engineers at Weetabix sites will take strike action over a row about pay and conditions.

Unions said workers were being made to accept new contracts that could mean some of them lose up to £5,000 a year.

There are warnings there could be a shortage of the cereal if stoppages happen at the two factories in Northamptonshire.

Weetabix said it had been consulting with workers over new ways of working.

The union Unite said more than 70 workers at the Burton Latimer and Corby sites would be affected by proposals to, in its words, "fire and rehire" workers on contracts.

Weetabix has been made in Burton Latimer since 1932

Paresh Patel, regional secretary of the union in the East Midlands, said: "What we don't accept is where an employer says 'either this way or the highway' and that in affect is what Weetabix has done."

He said the company had "done reasonably well throughout this pandemic".

"Our members here have continued to come into work throughout the pandemic, not only putting themselves at risk but their families at risk at the same time.

"Being treated this way is a slap in the face."

Paresh Patel from the union Unite said his members would have been sympathetic to changes had the company not done well through the pandemic

A spokesperson for Weetabix said: "As part of our ongoing change programme, we have been in close consultation with our employees and their local union representatives to implement new ways of working.

"We are proud to have recognised the efforts of all of our teams in keeping our factories open throughout the challenges of the last year and we were very happy to be able to share two discretionary bonuses with our manufacturing teams during that time."

The ballot for strike action closes on Thursday 3 June.