Macallan strike: Workers at world famous Scotch whisky distillery vote on strike action
Staff at one of Scotland’s best known whisky brands are voting on strike action.
Staff at one of Scotland’s best known whisky distilleries are voting on strike action as the actions of company bosses were branded “absurd”.
Key engineering workers employed across several of Scotland’s most iconic distilleries, including the Macallan operation in Craigellachie, Moray, will vote on the industrial action after managers were accused of changed the working week without agreement.
Union GMB Scotland said engineers supporting the Speyside operations of whisky giant Edrington, including at the world-famous Macallan Distillery, will start voting on Friday. Managers have imposed new shift patterns despite widespread concerns, the union has claimed.
The engineers covering Speyside operations are based at the Macallan Distillery, but also cover Glenrothes Distillery, in Rothes, and Parkmore, in Dufftown.
The engineering team, which had worked a four-day week for two years, has already unanimously backed industrial action in a consultative ballot amid claims the changes would mean working more days and being on-call longer for no extra pay.
A consultation over the changes started in January. However, GMB said Edrington management had imposed new rotas last month, insisting the changes were necessary to provide more emergency cover.
Lesley-Anne MacAskill, GMB Scotland organiser in the Highlands, said: “This is a small, but critical team and the rock these distilleries are built on.
“The workers’ expert opinion should be respected, but their suggestions to deliver the extra cover requested were rejected out of hand and the goal posts repeatedly moved.
“Their legitimate concerns about these shift changes and the upheaval caused have been ignored by managers unwilling to seriously engage in negotiations or consider alternatives.”
Ms MacAskill said it was “absurd” for Edrington to remove a four-day week from staff when other companies were adopting the compressed rotas because of the benefits.
She said: “These workers have more than 90 years combined experience, but are being forced to work hugely disruptive rotas drafted by a manager only a few weeks after joining the company.”
GMB said a three-week ballot on industrial action would start on Friday. The union has called on Edrington to urgently restart talks with workers to find a fairer way forward.
Ms MacAskill said: “It is an extreme course of action to needlessly provoke an industrial dispute by choosing conflict over communication and compromise.”
The potential strike action comes almost a year after Edrington reached an agreement to sell The Famous Grouse and Naked Malt Scotch Whisky brands to William Grant & Sons for an undisclosed sum.
An Edrington spokesperson said: “We always work hard to keep a strong partnership with all our people, so it is disappointing that after months of talking to our engineering team and their representatives, the GMB has chosen to ballot on industrial action.
“These new working arrangements are essential in aligning the work of our engineering team with colleagues around the distillery and other sites. We have made a number of concessions and compromises to ensure that the new arrangements provide our people with both flexibility and certainty about working patterns. We will continue to be open to discussion with our people and their representatives to reach a pragmatic solution.”
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