John Swinney urged to act on "union-busting" NHS food supplier

A union has called on the First Minister to step in after a company with a multi-million pound contract to supply food to Scottish hospitals ripped up a 30-year agreement with workers.

Bidfood, one of the UK’s largest food distributors, confirmed it withdrew its voluntary agreement to have union recognition across its business from January this year.

GMB Scotland has written to John Swinney claiming Bidfood’s decision is in breach of the Scottish Government’s employment rules for the public sector.

GMB Scotland has written to the first minister over Bidfood’s decision

The union is urging Mr Swinney to write to Bidfood, highlighting how Fair Work guidelines demand contractors in the public sector are good employers.

The union said the company has a £2m contract to supply food to NHS Scotland due to end in September, while other contracts to supply frozen and chilled food worth £7m are in place with two Scots universities, Edinburgh and Strathclyde.

Robert Deavy, of GMB Scotland, said Bidfood’s decision to derecognise trade unions after 30 years without warning leaves workers exposed to assaults on pay and conditions.

Bidfood’s clients include schools, prisons, the Army, Subway and Five Guys. It has a fleet of 90 lorries and 400 workers in Scotland delivering food from depots in Edinburgh, Larbert, Oban and Inverness.

Mr Deavy said: “It is nothing more or less than union-busting and, if allowed to stand, will pave the way for this company to use fire and rehire to lower wages and impose poorer conditions.

“The Scottish Government has clear expectations of any suppliers to the public sector which explicitly demand workers in these companies have an effective, collective voice.

“The unions have been that voice at this company for 30 years and we will not be silenced now.”

Mr Deavy said Bidfood’s move would strip workers of the right to collectively bargain on pay, terms and conditions.

He called on Swinney to write to the company’s chief executive Andrew Selley.

GMB Scotland also asked the Scottish Government to raise its concerns with NHS Scotland and Edinburgh and Strathclyde universities as it considers the possibility of industrial action.

A Bidfood spokesperson 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.”

The spokesperson said the recent statements from GMB were “highly inflammatory” with “untrue claims”, adding: “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.

Employment Minister Tom Arthur said: “We are considering the specifics of this case and will respond to GMB Scotland’s letter in due course.”