{"id":20970,"date":"2020-04-22T17:05:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=20970"},"modified":"2020-04-22T17:05:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:05:37","slug":"essential-workers-must-be-able-to-afford-essential-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=20970","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Essential workers must be able to afford essential things\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite today (April 22) called on Pioneer Foods, a multimillion pound food\u00c2\u00a0manufacturer, to get its act together over pay and sickness.<\/p>\n

Pioneer Foods manufactures cereals, for leading supermarkets including; Aldi, Asda, M&S, Sainsburys and\u00c2\u00a0Morrisons.<\/p>\n

The South African owned company has a turnover of over \u00c2\u014171m in the UK according to its latest accounts.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00c2\u00a0most workers at its Peterborough and Wellingborough sites normally\u00c2\u00a0earn the minimum wage and are only entitled to the government’s statutory sick pay scheme.<\/p>\n

The company\u00c2\u00a0temporarily increased its production workers’ pay by \u00c2\u01411 an hour\u00c2\u00a0during the health crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but Unite is demanding that this increase should be made permanent. Essential workers should be able to afford the essentials.<\/p>\n

Unite is also demanding that\u00c2\u00a0Pioneer Foods introduces a proper sick pay scheme which\u00c2\u00a0gives workers full sick pay from day one. The union has received\u00c2\u00a0reports of\u00c2\u00a0production workers alleging they are having to use their holiday entitlements while off sick.<\/p>\n

“Pioneer Foods is a multimillion pound company which is paying essential workers\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0pittance,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Adam Oakes.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe current COVID-19 crisis is exposing how essential workers crucial to the supply and production of food\u00c2\u00a0have been underpaid\u00c2\u00a0and poorly treated\u00c2\u00a0for too long.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEarning around the minimum wage is not good enough.\u00c2\u00a0Allegations that some\u00c2\u00a0workers are\u00c2\u00a0using holiday entitlements\u00c2\u00a0to cover\u00c2\u00a0their\u00c2\u00a0costs while\u00c2\u00a0off sick is a\u00c2\u00a0serious concern, particularly in the current circumstances.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Oakes added, “Essential workers must be able to afford life’s essentials, like putting food on the table and paying the bills. They also need a proper sick pay scheme\u00c2\u00a0from day one or when a worker must\u00c2\u00a0self-isolate.\u00c2\u00a0The\u00c2\u00a0temporary pay\u00c2\u00a0increase\u00c2\u00a0for workers at Pioneer Foods must now be made permanent.”<\/p>\n

Workers have already sent\u00c2\u00a0the company ‘letters of concern’ which have led to improvements including new hand washing stations, metal screens between packers, visual marks for social distancing as well as more space for workers to have lunch while keeping an acceptable social distance.<\/p>\n

By Ciaran Naidoo\u00c2\u00a0 @CiaranNaidoo <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite today (April 22) called on Pioneer Foods, a multimillion pound food\u00c2\u00a0manufacturer, to get its act together over pay and sickness. Pioneer Foods manufactures cereals, for leading supermarkets including; Aldi, Asda, M&S, Sainsburys and\u00c2\u00a0Morrisons. The South African owned company has a turnover of over \u00c2\u014171m in the UK according to its latest accounts. Yet\u00c2\u00a0most workers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,758,298],"wps_subtitle":"COVID-19 crisis exposes poor treatment of vital workers supplying major supermarkets","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20970"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20974,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20970\/revisions\/20974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}