Fair shares for staff (From Gazette & Herald)

Fair shares for staff

LIKE Mrs Frost ('Nestl staff lucky', Letters, January 19) my mother worked as a nursing assistant for more than 25 years. She was underpaid and undervalued.

A salary of £12,500 is a scandal for the valuable and necessary work carried out by Mrs Frost and the other hard- working dedicated public service workers.

But does this mean Nestl workers, who work for a company with a multi-billion pound turnover and who make more than a billion pounds profit, should not share in the success of the business?

In recent years the workforce has shrunk dramatically. This has been achieved with new investment in machinery and plant but also with the workforce adapting to new skills and work methods.

The last thing my members wish to take is industrial action. But who can take such a substantial cut in wages with 12 weeks' notice when they were told in the Evening Press less than 18 months ago what a fantastic pay rise they were receiving and that four-shift working was beneficial to their health?

Where is the corporate social responsibility we hear so much about?

As for Mrs Frost's last statement: "Chocolate workers should thank their lucky stars they have a job" - I wonder which planet Mrs Frost comes from? Brian Golding,

GMB branch president Nestl Rowntree, Hollybank Road,

Holgate, York.

Updated: 10:48 Wednesday, January 28, 2004