Union accuses bread supplier George Weston of ‘slavery’, but company says they turned down pay hikes – Newshub

A union representative for staff at one of the country's biggest bakery companies has accused their employer of "slavery", amid a bitter dispute over pay and working conditions.

Members of FIRST Union at George Weston Foods' bakeries in thuhu and Wiri have been taking industrial action, saying they're underpaid and working long hours. George Weston - part of multinational company Associated British Foods - says they've been offered pay increases that would take them above the living wage of $22.75 an hour, and further action will threaten Auckland's bread supply.

"They're using the pandemic as an opportunity to disrupt supply," George Weston general manager of baking Mark Bosomworth told Newshub on Friday. George Weston makes bread sold under the Tip Top, Brgen, Ploughmans, Big Ben, Golden and Bazaar brands.

"We've already offered all of the workers at our sites the living wage in year one - that's a 5 percent pay increase in year one, and a 3 percent pay increase in year two... it's astonishing They saw this offer of mediation this week and turned it down flatly."

Jared Abbott of FIRST Union told The AM Show earlier on Friday the union hadn't seen any offer with pay rises that generous.

"It's not true, and if it was then that would be great - we could probably have a quick resolution to this We have actually written to them and said, 'Can you please just send us the offer you're talking about on the radio? Because it's not what you've given to us.'"

Abbott said the offer they've seen would leave 20 percent of the staff still below the living wage. The company has rejected this, showing Newshub a chart which showed zero employees would be below the living wage after the first year of pay hikes.

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Union accuses bread supplier George Weston of 'slavery', but company says they turned down pay hikes - Newshub