Kellogg’s has dished out more than £1m in Christmas bonuses this year, giving non-executive workers an extra week’s pay in their December wage packet.
Some 1,600 office and factory-based employees will receive an average bonus of £683, the largest amount ever awarded, it has emerged.
The news comes just three months after a dispute over proposed job cuts at the Wrexham factory in the North East, which was later resolved.
Karen Meehan, Kellogg’s vice-president of HR, said: “When so many companies are making cutbacks it’s great that we are able to pay out this bonus to our employees again this year and help them with the cost of Christmas – some of whom may be impacted by family members affected by the recession.”
In September, a strike ballot was cancelled after the firm promised not to make any more redundancies at the Wrexham site. Twenty-five people had left through voluntary redundancy or early retirement, but the firm said it would not look to cut an extra 15 roles as originally intended.
Earlier this year the firm also made it possible for employees to take Friday afternoons off over the summer, providing they had already worked their contracted hours.
The summer hours scheme, which has run for six years, demonstrates the importance of non-financial rewards – with 82% of Kellogg’s 660 office-based employees saying they felt happier in their jobs because of it, according to the last staff survey.
