Gate Gourmet offers to reinstate 400
The head of airline caterer, Gate Gourmet, has said he is prepared to reinstate 400 of the 670 workers who were sacked last month.
The breakthrough came after weeks of picketing outside the firm’s headquarters at Heathrow airport, by the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G).
The company’s chairman, David Siegel, said that while he would rather not reinstate any of the sacked workers, he is willing to take back 400 to diffuse the deadlock.
Mr Siegel added that he would not take back all the workers because he feared this would cause the business to fail, and he also claimed there was a hardcore of around 200 “troublemakers” who would never be allowed back.
A T&G spokesperson said his claim about a core of “troublemakers” was “absurd”.
Gate Gourment, which claims it is losing £25 million a year, has also drawn up a voluntary redundancy package for 1,400 of its workers.
