Fri, 23 Aug 2013More than 200 workers at the Wigan factory of baker Hovis are to strike during the coming weeks over the company’s use of agency labour from recruitment and outsourcing group Staffline and of zero-hours contracts at the site.

Staffline says to recruiter.co.uk that while it has worked with the bread maker in the past, it doesn’t currently have any workers supplied to the Hovis facility, also noting that this relationship is not one of its large-scale OnSite operations.
 
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) claims its members working for Hovis have previously reduced their hours and subsequently pay “in a bid to reduce the need for redundancies”.
 
Nonetheless, BFAWU says in a statement that Premier Foods – the parent company of Hovis – proceeded with redundancies, and then “decided to renege on longstanding recognition agreements and make up the ensuing staff shortfall with agency labour, with many being utilised on an ‘as and when’ basis, in other words: zero-hour contracts”.

However, Staffline, which BFAWU tells recruiter.co.uk is the agency in question, confirms to recruiter.co.uk that it never uses, and never will use, zero-hours contracts in any of its operations.
 
And Premier Foods points out that the very few staff who are on zero-hours contracts are all employed directly rather than through the agency, and reminds recruiter.co.uk that temp contracts are dealt with by the agency.

Premier Foods’ statement also notes that “as a matter of principle, we have moved away from the use of zero hours contracts” and is looking to transfer its remaining six directly-employed zero-hours staff at Wigan onto full-time roles as opportunities arise.

It also tells recruiter.co.uk that it does make use of “a limited amount of temporary agency labour”, adding up to “a relatively small proportion of our total workforce”.
 
BFAWU says it has since attempted to resolve the "situation" and will continue in these attempts, but has also taken what it says was the “painful decision” to ballot members for strike action. The vote was “overwhelmingly in favour” of industrial action, for three seven-day periods commencing 28 August, 11 September and 25 September.
 
The union also comments that it had highlighted “exploitation” through zero-hours contracts back in 2011, but that at this time “with honourable exceptions, the media, local politicians and the general public alike decided to remain impassive and apathetic”.
 
Since then, in the union’s words, “it was only a matter of time before other organisations [employers] decided to jump on this particular bandwagon”.

Last month, Premier Foods told recruiter.co.uk it was reducing the number of agencies it works with as part of a broader plan to chop its supplier base in half by the end of next year.

For more on zero hours contracts and recruitment:

• ‘Zero-hours: Labour to sum it up after Umunna's ‘frank discussion’’ (recruiter.co.uk, 21 August)

• Recruiters unfazed by zero-hours row (Recruiter, August 2013)

• ‘Early' CIPD research findings say there may be 1m on zero-hours contracts' (recruiter.co.uk, 5 August)