Usdaw slams dairy receivers

Usdaw slammed receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers today after it closed and sold off a number of Dairy Farmers of Britain sites without informing the Union.

Usdaw National Officer, John Gorle, described as ‘deplorable’ the way in which employees were given no notice of losing their job and is seeking a protective award against the receivers on behalf of over 2,000 staff.

John Gorle said:

“It is completely unacceptable that a receiver is able to come in to a failing company and trample all over the staff and the existing procedures in place to protect them. In this case, PricewaterhouseCoopers did not once consult with any of the employee representatives.

“We have had lots of calls from upset members wanting to know what is going on. And I am not surprised. Unfortunately, we have not been in a position to provide that information, as the receivers chose not to speak to us directly, preferring to put out the information in a release to the press, which we just happened to pick up on.

“Many of the workers at Dairy Farmers of Britain have been at the company for years and the way that this has been handled by the receivers has made a devastating situation worse. We will be fighting tooth and nail to recover additional monies on behalf of our members given the failure to consult.

“We have started to speak with the Government about imposing stricter regulations on receivers, so that this kind of shocking behaviour is not allowed to happen again.”

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Cherry Hamilton, can be contacted on 0161 249 2469 or e-mail cherry.hamilton@usdaw.org.uk
• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fourth biggest trade union, with over 372,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
• More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.
• Subscribe/unsubscribe to Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service at: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/site/email.html

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