Invergordon workers told to take massive pay cuts or redundancy

By Sean Robertson, Socialist Party Highland

Workers at one of the largest distilleries in the Highlands have been told that they will have to accept swingeing pay cuts of £10,000 to keep their jobs. In addition 21 staff (20% of the workforce) will also be made redundant under plans announced by Whyte and Mackay.

Liz Gordon of GMB Highland, the union that represents workers at the site, said that staff had been “blindsided by the scale of the cutbacks”.

Regarding job losses, she said:“We anticipated a small number but this is a fifth of the workforce and means production levels will not be maintained. As if that wasn’t bad enough, to then offer the remaining staff a £10,000 pay cut is untenable in light of the fact that they will be required to increase their skills and accept more responsibly. With over 20 jobs going and wages being cut, there is going to be a significant and direct impact on the local community.”

The impact of the cuts to jobs and wages on workers and their community will be dramatic. The cost of living in the Highlands is high, local small businesses as well as supply chain jobs will be hit hard.

However far from being an industry on its knees which needs to cut to survive, Scotch whisky represents 20% of all UK food and drinks exports. In 2017 that amounted to £139 per second in exports alone. In the UK, the industry employs 10,000 people directly and 40,000 in the supply chain. Last year Whyte and Mackay’s profits increased by 54%.

Workers organised in unions like the GMB should refuse to accept even one penny of cuts to wages, and should resist all job losses through co-ordinated action across Whtye and Mackay sites, including strike action. Workers and their communities cannot be allowed to pay the cost of the profiteering and greed of their big business bosses.

The local community should also rally to support the workers.

• In 2016 Whyte and Mackay, which produces brands such as Jura, Dalmore and Glayva, paid just £172,000 in tax, despite making profits of over £24 million. They are owned by billionaire Filipino business man Andrew Tan, who was named in the Panama Papers because his company Emperador – which owns the Whyte and Mackay brand – is registered in the Virgin Islands, an offshore tax haven in the Caribbean.