Business

Staff at Alcan Packaging’s Salterbeck site are again considering strike action, following discontent over the firm’s revised sick pay scheme.

Workers at the confectionery packaging manufacturer were balloted during February and results were expected after Packaging News went to press. A ban on overtime that started on 10 February was lifted pending a meeting of workers and the results of the ballot.

Howard Farrar, Alcan’s human resources manager, said: “We have experienced high levels of sick days that the firm can no longer support.”

The news comes a month after strike action over proposed job losses in the site’s gravure department was averted (Packaging News, February 2007).

Profits in Alcan’s packaging division fell 8% to £280m ($550m) in 2006.

* Strike action carries on at Field Packaging’s Newcastle plant as the firm continues talks with Amicus. But Field’s Bradford site has returned to business as usual after successful talks over new terms and conditions. (Packaging News, February 2007).