Macallan workers to vote on strike action
GMB Scotland will ballot engineers on strike action tomorrow at Edrington’s Speyside distilleries, which includes The Macallan and Glenrothes.
The union will ballot the engineers based at Edrington’s Speyside operations at The Macallan Distillery, Glenrothes Distillery in Rothes, and Parkmore in Dufftown tomorrow (5 September) after new ‘hugely disruptive’ rotas were imposed on them by management last month, subsequently removing four-day working weeks.
The new ‘necessary’ shift patterns were introduced to provide more emergency cover, with consultation over the changes said to have begun in January, bringing engineering shifts in line with the working patterns of their colleagues at the distillery.
For the past two years, the union noted engineers at the sites have worked four-day weeks at the suggestion of management, while the engineers claim the changes will mean working more days and being on-call for longer with no extra pay.
A consultative ballot has shown industrial action will be unanimously backed.
Lesley-Anne MacAskill, GMB Scotland organiser in the Highlands, said it was was “absurd” for Edrington to remove the four-day week when other companies were adopting the compressed rotas because of the benefits.
She said: “This is a small but critical team and the rock these distilleries are built on. The workers’ expert opinion should be respected but their suggestions to deliver the extra cover requested were rejected out of hand and the goal posts repeatedly moved.
“Their legitimate concerns about these shift changes and the upheaval caused have been ignored by managers unwilling to seriously engage in negotiations or consider alternatives.”
Voting will be live from tomorrow and will run for three weeks.
MacAskill added: “It is extreme course of action to needlessly provoke an industrial dispute by choosing conflict over communication and compromise”.
GMB has called on Edrington to urgently restart talks with workers to find a fairer way forward.
A spokesperson for Edrington said: “We always work hard to keep a strong partnership with all our people, so it is disappointing that after months of talking to our engineering team and their representatives, the GMB has chosen to ballot on industrial action.
“These new working arrangements are essential in aligning the work of our engineering team with colleagues around the distillery and other sites. We have made a number of concessions and compromises to ensure that the new arrangements provide our people with both flexibility and certainty about working patterns.
“We will continue to be open to discussion with our people and their representatives to reach a pragmatic solution.”
Earlier this year workers at Inver House Distillers in Scotland went on strike over a pay dispute.
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