More than 1,000 employees at chocolate giant Cadbury have gained a pay rise of more than 17% over the next two years.
The staff will also receive a 25% pay rise in holiday pay, the workers’ union Unite said.
About 80% of workers at Bournville in Birmingham, Chirk in Wales and Marlebrook in Hereford voted in favour of the deal.
The union said the deal set the standard for food manufacturing companies.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Where employers can clearly afford to raise pay, we are determined to ensure that they do. Yet again Unite’s focus on improving jobs, pay and conditions is getting results for our members.
“This deal was delivered by the hard work and dedication of Unite’s representatives at Cadbury and the support of Unite members.”
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Unite national officer for food and drink, Joe Clarke, said: “Unite negotiated this deal over three months with Cadbury and it sets the standard for the rest of the food manufacturing sector, which is performing very strongly.
“Unite will be negotiating with other food manufacturing companies in the coming months and we will be bargaining for our members in those workplaces to also receive rises that take into consideration the rising cost of living and high profits of their employers.”
In further good news for workers’ pay, Eden Hotel Collection which employs more than 350 staff across the country has given employees a pay rise of up to 14% in response to the rising cost-of-living crisis and recruitment challenges in the hospitality sector.
The company – which has hotels in Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Devon – said the increases have been made to recognise national recruitment difficulties within the hospitality sector.
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Group managing director Mark Chambers said: “As an industry we’ve all been through an immense pressure in the past couple of years but as we now emerge out of the pandemic, rising cost-of-living is unfortunately placing a new burden on our workforce.”
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