Caterer says 160 staff face sack at Christmas

Martin's Contract Catering has warned that 160 staff will lose their jobs at Christmas, if it gives in to union demands.

But unions slammed the group's warning last week as scaremongering, following a ballot in which two-thirds of school meals staff in Yorkshire's East Riding voted in favour of industrial action.

From next week, staff plan to stop work an hour early every Friday and will refuse to work any extra hours. The action is in response to Martin's decision to issue new staff contracts in July, with cuts to holiday pay, sick pay and working hours.

About 350 staff are waiting for an industrial tribunal hearing in December to determine whether the contractor had the right to change their working conditions.

Martin's took over the £4.5m-a-year contract in January but said it had to change terms of employment to meet "significant operational changes" laid down in its contract (Caterer, 5 August, page 5). Talks with unions broke down at the end of April.

But in a presentation, Martin's told staff that if it bowed to union requests "160 people could lose their jobs at Christmas".

A spokeswoman from Unison said that it had suggested a number of options to prevent staff having their terms altered, such as moving staff to nearby locations and voluntary redundancy.

But Peter Martin, managing director of Martin's said: "The unions have put a methodology to us that would lead to significant redundancies."

by Christina Golding.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 18 - 24 November 1999.