Chivas Brothers: Kilmalid pay dispute figures ‘inaccurate’

Chivas Brothers says it “regrets” the industrial action taken by some of its whisky workers this week, but that the figure quoted regarding pay disparity between employees is “inaccurate”.

Unite the Union claims workers at Chivas Brothers’ Paisley site earn more than those doing the same work at Kilmalid

On Monday (7 August) more than 100 employees formed a picket line at the Chivas Brothers-owned Kilmalid site, following claims they are earning almost £900 less than their colleagues performing the same tasks at the company’s nearby Paisley site.

Further industrial action is currently scheduled for next week (14 and 15 August), according to trade union Unite the Union, which claims Level 3 workers at the Kilmalid site earn £837.50 less than those at Paisley, while Kilmalid employees on Level 4 are allegedly taking home £896.50 less than their Paisley counterparts.

However, in a statement released yesterday, Laurent Lacassagne, chairman and CEO at Chivas Brothers, said these figures were incorrect.

“We regret that some of our employees at the Kilmalid site took industrial action yesterday [Monday],” said Lacassagne. “Their decision came following a period of constructive, open and transparent negotiation with employee representatives, after which union members at our Paisley, southern operations and northern operations accepted our pay offer.

“Overall pay levels for our Kilmalid employees are highly competitive and, in addition, we expect the majority of basic salaries at Kilmalid to increase by 11.6% over the duration of three-and-a-half years of the pay deal.

“The figure quoted regarding the difference in pay between our Paisley and Kilmalid sites is inaccurate. While there is a slight difference across sites in terms of basic pay, late last year we actively proposed to bring forward the harmonisation of pay to January 2018.”

Intervention

Unite the Union wrote to parent group Pernod Ricard’s CEO, Alexandre Ricard, on Friday last week (4 August) asking him to intervene in the matter.

An extract of the letter said: “We have repeatedly urged Chivas [Brothers] to implement the harmonisation of pay and conditions with immediate effect.

“However, management insisted that the harmonisation would not take effect until 2018 despite previously issuing a letter in 2006 to all employees stating harmonisation of pay and conditions would occur across the two sites’.”

Unite regional coordinating officer Elaine Dougal said in a statement released ahead of the strike: “Chivas itself states in its advertisements: ‘Here’s to the straight talkers, who give their word and keep it’. A 13-year wait does not constitute a speedy resolution over pay inequalities and the standardisation of terms and conditions across the sites.

“Unite believes it is time the company keeps its own word. For this reason, we have written to the chief executive of Pernod Ricard to seek the intervention by Chivas [Brothers’] parent company in an effort to get a positive result for all concerned.”