Cheshire: Jiffy workers accept 4% pay increase to end dispute

A pay dispute at a packaging factory has come to an end after workers accepted a new deal.

Workers at a Jiffy packaging plant in Winsford, Cheshire, have agreed to a 4% pay increase after an initial offer of a 1.5% increase was rejected.

More than 50 members of the Unite union had taken 36 days of industrial action in July. The accepted pay increase will be backdated to 1 March.

Barrie Alen, technical director at Jiffy, said: "We are pleased we reached an amicable decision."

Staff also maintained all existing terms and conditions that had been under threat - including sick pay, monitoring workers' toilet breaks and changes to bank holiday working practices, Unite said.

Further assurances over redundancies and retraining have also been guaranteed as part of the deal.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "We backed our members at Jiffy in their fight for better pay and to protect their terms and conditions, and because they fought hard for what was rightfully theirs, they won the dispute.

"They should be applauded for standing firm against this household name who tried so hard to short change them."

The union previously said the company, which is synonymous with padded envelopes and other packaging materials, made nearly £6m in gross profits according to their last accounts "so can easily afford to make a decent pay offer to their employees".