Roster shake-up sparks Cadbury staff meltdown

HUNDREDS of chocolate factory workers have been on strike against “disappointing” proposed changes to pay and rostering conditions, says their union.

Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union Tasmanian secretary John Short said Cadbury workers in Claremont had been involved in several strikes and stoppages during the past month.

He said Cadbury was attempting to reduce some workers’ wages and allow roster changes at two weeks’ notice instead of the current four.

“The workers at Cadbury’s are very hard workers, they’re working 12-hour shifts,” Mr Short said.

“Unfortunately the company wants to take paying conMr ditions off workers at a time where the company’s going extremely well.

“The workers have not missed a day through the COVID-19 crisis and it’s … disappointing that the company are treating them this way.”

He said roster changes at two weeks’ notice would uproot employees’ work-life balance and impact monthly scheduled arrangements for workers with child commitments and other appointments. He said 90 per cent of the Cadbury workforce rejected the company’s new roster proposal.

One anonymous worker said it felt like workers were no closer to reaching a resolution.

Mr Short said some other Claremont workers were in talks with Cadbury for wage increases. He said staff were seeking a 3 per cent increase each year for three years.

Human resources business lead for Cadbury’s parent company Mondelez International Deborah Seeber said the company had maintained a preCOVID proposal to offer “very generous” pay increases by almost 8 per cent in the “next couple of years”.

“We are looking for a small increase in flexibility to change shifts as we sometimes have to turn down requests for more of our Tassie-made products,” she said.

The strikes comes after the High Court ruled that Cadbury staff working 12-hour shifts were entitled to 76 hours of personal leave a year – equating to 10 7.6-hour days rather than their desired 10 12-hour days.