A meeting of workers sacked in a dispute with Gate Gourmet last night voted overwhelmingly to accept a deal agreed between the management and the Transport and General Workers’ Union.
Almost 400 of the 700 workers who were sacked when the dispute flared up last month will be offered their jobs back.
Others have indicated they will take voluntary severance, but 144 will be made compulsorily redundant.
The deal is expected to be put to more than 1,000 Gate Gourmet staff who continued working during the strike.
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the T&G, said the proposals meant that 80% of the sacked workers would “get what they wanted”.
The union said those being made redundant had been selected on “objective” criteria such as attendance, performance and skills and they would all be allowed to appeal.
Eric Born, managing director of Gate Gourmet, said: “As we said all along, we are happy to consider re-engaging some of the workers dismissed for staging an illegal walkout.”
He said the speed with which the deal could be finalised depended on those being made compulsorily redundant signing “compromise agreements” which will waive their right to take their cases to employment tribunals.
