Panrico agrees 745 layoffs with some worker representatives

Loss-making Spanish bread and pastry manufacturer Panrico has reached an agreement with some of the workforce’s labor representatives on the dismissal of 745 workers and wage cuts of 18 percent for remaining employees.

The agreement was reached with six members of the UGT union in the negotiating team and three from the CCOO union who represent workers at Panrico plant in Zaragoza and Puente Genil in the province of Córdoba, where no sackings are planned, as well as those of the Seville factory where 35 layoffs are to be made. The overall vote was 9 in favor out of 13.

The members of the negotiating team who voted against the agreement, and above all those who represent workers at Panrico’s Santa Perpètua plant in the Barcelona area, which will feel the brunt of the layoffs and whose workers have been on strike for seven weeks, are considering filing a lawsuit to have the accord overruled because it flouts a vote at six production plants on Saturday rejecting the package.

Beatriz Arenas, a member of the works committee of the Santa Perpètua plant said: “They have punished us because of our opposition to the labor adjustment plan; before the strike the figures for this factory were for 30 layoffs, not 150.”

The plant’s workforce was due later Tuesday to decide whether to continue their stoppage.