Trade union in dispute with school meals company over cuts

The trade union says the firm, based at Lowton Business Park, has reduced the hours and pay of hundreds of kitchen staff across the region and claimed the business had informed them by text message.

Unison says the 20 per cent pay cut, taking effect immediately, will leave some employees more than £300 a month worse off and mean key workers face a struggle to make ends meet in the run-up to Christmas.

However, Dolce said some of the trade union's claims, such as the one about staff finding out by text message, were incorrect and strongly denied any wrongdoing in the way it had handled the matter.

It said the reduction was only temporary and due to a sudden drop in demand, and that as the situation returned to normality staff would return to their full allocation of hours.

The caterers were warned of the pay cut last month and Unison voiced strong opposition.

The trade union urged the company to work with it to find a solution and raised its concern over the lack of consultation.

Unison says staff have now submitted letters of protest to Dolce and headteachers are also concerned about the cuts at a time when demand for school meals is increasing,

Unison also disputed the company's assertion that demand had dropped due to the pandemic, suggesting many schools are not reducing their contracts or payments to the company.

Unison North West schools organiser Keith Bradley said: “The entire country is in awe of the key workers who are putting themselves at risk to keep our schools running during this second period of lockdown.

“The entire country, it seems, apart from the bosses of disgraceful Dolce, who have hit new lows by informing their workforce of the imposition of a pay cut via text message.

“At a time when Marcus Rashford MBE is leading the way in our region by campaigning to provide free school meals in the holidays, the very company providing those meals is set to plunge its own low-paid, majority-women workforce into poverty with just over a month until Christmas.

“We are outraged by Dolce’s despicable behaviour and we are seeking legal advice- we will support these key workers to fight this decision all the way.”

A Dolce spokesperson said: "We support responsible trade unionism, however, on this occasion Unison have some of the important facts wrong.

"Due to a sporadic decrease of around 20 per cent nationally in the uptake of school dinners following the return to school in September we have avoided redundancies by temporarily reducing the hours of some staff.

"This was done professionally by a securely-delivered letter following appropriate consultation.

"We are working cooperatively with schools, staff and parents to get children to enjoy our tasty school dinners. As we return to normality, we will remove these temporary reductions."