In a statement Bidfood said: “We can confirm that after careful consideration, we have made the decision to withdraw our voluntary agreement to have a Collective Bargaining Unit (CBU) across our business from 17th January 2025.
“This was not a decision we made lightly, however we’ve found in recent years that the CBU is not reflective of the interests of the majority of our employees and is therefore not fully representative of those working within transport or our warehouse roles, with a number of employees voicing concerns and frustrations over long delays in resolving issues.
“Following the highly inflammatory and untrue claims made in the release that GMB has issued, we want to make it clear that we are in no way threatening a ‘fire and rehire’ of our employees, nor are we planning to change their terms and conditions.
“It's really disappointing to see GMB attempt to scaremonger in order to foster mistrust and doubt among our employees. This further cements our view that this is not the collaborative approach we aspired to have between ourselves and the trade unions.
“In order to best represent and support our warehouse and transport community, it’s important for us to work with our teams directly through our Employee Engagement Forums, which we believe represent a wider range of our employees’ views across all sites, and are a more agile, effective and collaborative way to listen, discuss and resolve matters that are important to our employees, in real time.
“We really value our people and pride ourselves on being a people business. We take the importance of listening to and supporting them incredibly seriously, and we value contributions and feedback from all of our employees. We remain committed to ensuring an open approach to discussing and tackling issues and wholeheartedly believe this is a positive step for our business and our people.”
Steve Garelick, GMB regional organiser, said: “GMB has worked closely with Bidfood over the last thirty years to improve conditions for workers.
“Bidfood ended that cooperation without notice, leaving our members vulnerable to the possible threat of fire and rehire. Our members work hard to ensure local schools and hospitals are supplied with the food they need. They deserve the security and protection that comes with being part of a recognised union.”