Falcon Foodservice Equipment Strike

Strike Action Set At Stirling Catering Manufacturer As Dispute Over ‘Derisory’ Pay Offer Intensifies

Staff at the Stirling based catering manufacturing firm Falcon Foodservice Equipment will take three days of industrial action following a failure by their employer to award an above inflation pay deal for 2018.

Production will be halted for forty-eight hours on Thursday 14 June and for a further twenty-four hours on Monday 18 June after GMB members comprehensively rejected a 2 per cent pay offer, with 83.5 per cent of members on a 96.5 per cent turnout voting for strikes.

GMB representatives met again with Falcon management yesterday (Tuesday 5 June) in the wake of the strike ballot result, with the employer tabling a fresh offer to top-up the basic rate of pay on the basis that it would be funded by the removal of a staff attendance allowance.

However, staff unanimously rejected this offer following a workplace meeting and urged their employer to bring forward new proposals that do not undercut existing terms and conditions.

GMB Scotland Organiser Alan Ritchie said: “The strength of feeling among our members for a decent pay rise is evident in their comprehensive rejection of the employer’s derisory pay offer.

In the last six months the cost of living reached a five year high and against the backdrop of previous below inflation awards, staff have simply had enough of cuts to their pay and conditions.

But instead of recognising our members’ real concerns, the employer has only increased their anger by telling them to fund a pay increase through their own pockets. You really couldn’t make it up.

Strike action is not something we take lightly but we have been negotiating now for six months without a resolution because of this employer’s miserly valuation of their hard-working staff.

Falcon needs to make work pay for their staff but unless they come back with a credible offer that we deem worthy of our members’ consultation then production will stop next week.”

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Contact: GMB Scotland Organiser Alan Ritchie on 07813 541791 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.