{"id":28354,"date":"2021-04-06T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T15:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=28354"},"modified":"2021-04-06T16:52:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T15:52:16","slug":"toxic-firms-threat-to-fire-and-rehire-300-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=28354","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Toxic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s threat to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 300 staff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Coffee-drinking supermarket customers will be a key element in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute affecting nearly 300 employees at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire, as the firm faces reputational damage due to its high-handed tactics.<\/p>\n

Unite warned today (Tuesday April 6) that the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coffee drinkers needed to have confidence that the products – Tassimo, Kenco and L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122OR Coffee – they were buying were produced by a firm with excellent ethical standards.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unite said there was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a simmering managerial toxic culture\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at the Ruscote Avenue site which employs a diverse workforce.<\/p>\n

Unite said its claims of a such a culture stem from allegations – that have come to the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention – that at the 2019 Christmas party there were claims of assault and the police were called to the pub to deal with alleged intoxicated managers.<\/p>\n

Ballot <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members are currently voting on whether to take industrial action, with the option to strike, in response to the Dutch-owned company issuing notice of dismissal and engagement for 291 employees. The ballot closes on Thursday April 15.<\/p>\n

The workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 anger has been fuelled by the financial results from the multi-national last month which reported \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a record In-Home organic growth of 9.1 per cent in 2020\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. This increase has been augmented by the boom in coffee drinking in the UK during the year-long pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loyal army of coffee drinkers needs to have confidence that the household names they purchase during their weekly supermarket shop are produced by a firm with a good reputation in the way it treats its staff,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite national officer Joe Clarke.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnfortunately, at present, Jacobs Douwe Egberts falls well below that benchmark as this highly-profitable multinational plans to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 its workforce during a global pandemic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It is the dregs when it comes to employment relations.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo meet the estimated 40 per cent increase in coffee drinking during the last 12 months, the workforce at Banbury has worked flat out supplying the nation with Tassimo, Kenco and L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122OR Coffee.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has also detected a simmering toxic culture by management as witnessed by the allegations of assault at the 2019 Christmas party attended by managers which required attendance by our hard-pressed police.<\/p>\n

Callous \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believe that the callous \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans are another manifestation of this culture.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite reiterates its call for constructive talks with the management on the plant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future, before JDE suffers a consumer backlash and their products remain on the supermarket shelves because coffee lovers are angry at the treatment of these dedicated employees.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

Unite has raised the flag warning of an outbreak of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 disputes across the UK as unscrupulous employers look to exploit workers using Covid-19 as an excuse.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFire and rehire is ripping through our workplaces like a disease,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWeak law lets\u00c2\u00a0bad bosses force through brutal changes to contracts, sometimes\u00c2\u00a0taking thousands of pounds off wages that families need to get by.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt’s a disgraceful\u00c2\u00a0practice that’s outlawed in much of Europe and should be here. Unite is fighting for UK workers to be treated with the same decency.\u00c2\u00a0 We won’t stop until the law is changed to protect working people from attack,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added McCluskey.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Shaun Noble <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coffee-drinking supermarket customers will be a key element in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute affecting nearly 300 employees at the JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts) site in Banbury, Oxfordshire, as the firm faces reputational damage due to its high-handed tactics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1409,489],"wps_subtitle":"Coffee giant faces consumer backlash warns Unite","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28354"}],"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=28354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28356,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28354\/revisions\/28356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}