Stewart Forrest - Usdaw Divisional Officer says: “We welcome the company agreeing to conciliation talks through ACAS and we hope this will lead to a resolution of the dispute. We expect talks to resume in the New Year, in the meantime we have suspended industrial action at Scotbeef.”

Notes for editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 28% over the decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

Scotbeef is one of UK's largest privately owned fresh meat companies, producing meat products for the UK and export retail market. Their main customers are: Aldi, Lidl, the Macdonald Hotel Group and Marks & Spencer. Usdaw members working at Scotbeef had voted by 81.2% to take industrial action after rejecting a 1.7% pay rise linked to a change in break entitlements.

For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion