Union unimpressed as furlough pay still not topped up despite Northampton food manufacturer’s £35m group profit

A union has been left annoyed that members at a huge Northampton food manufacturer are still not having their furlough pay topped up, despite the company revealing its profit.

Greencore, which has a warehouse in Moulton Park, has recorded a group operating profit of £35.6 million for the half year, which ended on March 29, 2020.

The recorded profit is a decrease of 13.8 per cent, however the union that represents employees at the warehouse believes the profit margin is enough to reward staff during the pandemic.

The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union has been of the opinion that the company should be topping up the furlough pay since it was announced that employees would be furloughed.

However, the latest financial announcement has made the union want to fight harder for the top up as it believes the company makes enough profit to stop its employees from being out of pocket.

George Atwall, regional officer for the union, said: “Greencore Food Group may have made slightly less profit than normal over the last few months, but the company is still very, very profitable.

“Greencore makes profit but still does not pay 20 per cent to top up the furlough pay.

“There is still no recognition for key workers and their sacrifice.”

The union also claims the only reward workers are getting is a breakfast voucher, however the company strongly disputes this claim.

Greencore has responded to the other claims by highlighting that the demand for its products has decreased considerably during the pandemic.

A spokesman for Greencore said: “As we said in our interim financial results on Tuesday May 19, weekly demand for our food to go products has declined by up to 70 percent since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

“While we are confident that this will be a temporary decrease and that we will return to normal levels of production in due course, the decline has meant that we have had to carry out a range of initiatives in order to navigate our way through the disruption and ensure that we can preserve jobs at Greencore in the long-term.

“In common with thousands of companies across the UK, the decision to furlough employees was one of those initiatives.

“We are hugely proud of the way in which our colleagues have responded to the challenge of helping to keep the UK fed during this difficult period, and are absolutely committed to looking after their wellbeing and keeping them safe.

“We also have a range of benefits and incentives in place for our colleagues across all of our sites.”

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