'Scandalous behaviour' | Coca-Cola could be next firm to face strike action over 'abysmal' pay row

Coca-Cola could be the next firm to be hit by strike action, as workers at one of its UK sites threatened to down tools amid a pay row and accusations of bully tactics from bosses.

Approximately 60 workers at the soft drink giant’s bottling plant in Wakefield, Yorkshire, have unanimously rejected the company’s latest pay offer, and subsequent threats and are now preparing to stage an industrial action ballot, the Unite union said.

Union chiefs accused the firm of attempting to force through a below-inflation pay deal, adding that workers were “furious about an abysmal pay deal alongside management threats and bullying”.

Workers have been offered a 21-month pay deal of 3.25% for the first 12 months, and 1.75 per cent for the next nine months. That would mean a real-terms pay cut of 6.7 per cent, based on the current RPI rate of 11.7 percent.