Top 10 Scrooge bosses of the year - 2 Sisters

This year throughout the festive period, UniteLive will highlight our top ten worst bosses of the year – employers so miserly and mean that they’d put Scrooge himself to shame.

Today we look at chicken giant 2 Sisters, which in September pulled a classic Scrooge – it refused workers a day off for the Queen’s funeral, which was designated a national bank holiday. Not only that, the company went one step further and refused to pay workers bank holiday pay, or give them a day off in lieu.

At the time, Unite slammed the decision, with Unite general secretary Sharon Graham commenting, “Many companies cannot switch off their operations during bank holidays. But decent employers compensate their staff for working them. 2 Sisters used to be a profitable company, but its atrocious management has turned it into a loss making one.

“The company, where pay and conditions are terrible, says it is working to attract and retain staff to reverse losses. If that’s the case, it needs to offer better pay and better contracts. A bank holiday premium on Monday would be a start.”

After 2 Sisters faced criticism for its decision, the company said it would give workers an extended two-hour break to allow them to watch the funeral proceedings on TV.

But the very next week, the Guardian revealed that workers at 2 Sisters were denied even this break.

“We didn’t get that two-hour break,” an anonymous worker told the Guardian. “It was just a normal day.”

“The funeral was on [a canteen television] when we went for break but we only get 30 minutes and you have to go down after 25 because you have to be back on the line.”

Instead of the promised break, workers said they received a ‘free breakfast’ which was, one worker said, “like eating cardboard”.

Commenting on the later revelations about being denied the promised break, Unite national officer Bev Clarkson said, “These revelations add insult to injury. Not only have 2 Sisters forced workers to work on a bank holiday without additional pay or additional time off but it now appears that the minimal extra provisions promised to sugar the pill failed to materialise. All workers deserve to be treated fairly and decently.”

Stay tuned for more Scrooge bosses tomorrow.

By UniteLive team