Strike action causes shortage of Greek meze staple

Industrial action at Bakkavor, a large supplier of the fish roe dip, has caused a “short disruption” to the supply and availability of taramasalata at supermarkets across the country, recent reports state today (12).

Employees at Bakkavor’s Spalding site in the Midlands launched strike action about six weeks ago over pay. Tubs of own-brand taramasalata were out of stock online at Waitrose, Sainbury’s and Tesco, the UK’s largest grocer. The Marks & Spencer dip was also unavailable at Ocado online.

Bakkover said: “There has been a short disruption to our supply of taramasalata, but drawing on the skills based across 21 UK sites, production steps up again next week.”

Bakkavor added that the strike action would not have a long-term effect on food supply and that its Christmas ranges were manufactured at the company’s other sites.

The British Retail Consortium acknowledged there were taramasalata availability issues but said retailers were “adept at managing supply to ensure the impact on customers is kept to a minimum and they can purchase goods as normal”, The Guardian reported.

According to the Unite union, workers at the company’s Spalding site are demanding a pay rise of 81p an hour and most workers at the site are paid £11.54 an hour.

In a statement issued last week, Donna-Maria Lee, chief people officer at Bakkavor, disputed Unite’s claim that the company had carried out years of real-term pay cuts. She said Bakkavor’s pay offer was “well above the national living wage and inflation”, and added that the pay rate for the lowest-paid workers had risen by 22.8 per cent, and by 21.2 per cent for everyone else.