Brewery faces overtime ban

Workers at the AB-InBev brewery at Samlesbury are to take industrial action in a dispute over the dismissal of the site’s senior health and safety rep.

Members of the GMB union will start a continuous overtime ban from Monday as part of their fight to have their former colleague reinstated.

The brewery produces millions of pints of popular beers including Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s.

The union claims Paul Morley was sacked for raising health and safety concerns at the plant, which employs around 280 workers.

AB-InBev, the world’s largest brewer, has denied that was the reason for his dismissal.

The union says Mr Morley, who was dismissed last month, had raised concerns that bosses had not conducted a proper assessment into fatigue caused by a new process to speed up brewing.

Shaun Buckley, GMB regional organiser, said: “GMB members at In-Bev are taking industrial action in solidarity with Paul Morley as they press for him to be reinstated.

“For Paul to be dismissed when he was looking out for the health and safety of his colleagues is a scandal and our members are taking the fight for his job right to the company.”

AB-InBev said that as a responsible brewer and business, health and safety is its “number one priority”.

A spokesman added: “While we can’t go into detail on individual or on-going employee cases, we want to emphasise that the employee in question was not dismissed for raising health and safety concerns.

“We take our commitment to health and safety seriously and ensure that all processes adhere to our high standards, as well as to legal requirements.

“The safety of our processes has been confirmed using a certified assessment tool from the UK body, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

“As part of our focus on the health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, we will continue to have a dialogue with trade union representatives.” The Samlesbury brewery celebrated its 45 ^th anniversary last year. It has the capacity to brew 440 million pints a year and can produce 3.5 million bottles and 1.7 million cans of beer a day.