McVitie’s parent company condemned as redundancy notices handed to factory staff

Unions have condemned the owners of the McVitie’s biscuit factory in Glasgow as an “absolute disgrace” for issuing redundancy notices to workers as politicians and businesspeople try to save the site.

Nearly 500 jobs are at risk at the closure-threatened factory in Tollcross in the city’s east end, which opened nearly 100 years ago and makes confections including Hobnobs and Rich Tea biscuits.

Union bosses have called for David Murray, managing director of McVitie’s parent company Pladis, to be “hauled” before an “action group” panel of council, industry and union chiefs which was set up by the Scottish Government to save the factory.

Pat McIlvogue, Unite industrial officer, said Mr Murray is “refusing to engage with the action group”, accusing Pladis of taking a “belligerent and arrogant approach”.

Turkish-owned Pladis has blamed “excess capacity” at its UK sites and plans to shutter the Glasgow factory in the second half of 2022 and move production elsewhere.

McVitie's have a number of factories across Britain
Dave Thompson

Mr McIlvogue said: “Everyone except the company is working together in order to bring forward options, which could save hundreds of jobs in the local area.

“Unite is again calling on Pladis to directly engage with the trade unions, the workforce and the Scottish Government to look at credible alternatives to closure.

“Pladis have a duty of care to hundreds of workers to jointly discuss with us what could be done to save jobs instead of this belligerent and arrogant approach which they have adopted.”

A spokesman for Pladis said: “We can confirm that we have today issued the HR1 notice; a letter which is a part of the formal consultation process on our proposal to close our factory in Tollcross.

“In recent weeks we have been frequently engaging with our trade union representatives and the Action Group co-chaired by Cabinet Secretary Kate Forbes and councillor Susan Aitken.

“We remain committed to meaningful consultation with our employees and their representatives.”

An online petition to save the factory currently has more than 52,000 signatures.