Workers at Mowi salmon processor 'treated worse than fish'

The Herald Scotland

24-06-2025

BFAWU General Secretary Sarah Woolley said: "Every worker going to work should feel that their health, safety and well-being is sacrosanct and a central priority of their employer. But, in our time representing workers at Mowi we have found that our members at Mowi are not treated with the respect and the dignity that every worker deserves.
'This report outlines many of the issues we have concerns about, based on the work we have done with members and speaking directly with them about their observations and experiences. We truly hope that our report acts as a wake up call to management at the plant.'
The report, based on testimony of workers and union officials who represent employees at Mowi, revealed a long list of complaints including 'lack of toilets, time limited toilet breaks, workers having to get toilet cover before they go, inadequate canteen facilities including a lack of seating for workers often working 12 hour shifts.'
Other concerns included 'lack of mitigation to help workers working in cold working temperatures for long periods of time and manual handling practices that could be resulting in injuries from repetitive work are some of the concerns raised in the report.
Strong concerns were also expressed about their sickness absence policy, deemed 'unfair because it gives discretion to managers about whether a worker gets sick pay or not if they are off sick'.
In some cases staff spoke of having had sick pay withdrawn even if they are off work due to workplace accidents and injuries.
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These issues raised in the report have led the bakers' union to 'question just how seriously Mowi takes the 'human rights' of its workers'.
In their 2021 annual report Mowi wrote about the importance of human rights and how it is at the core of their operations. 'Human rights are at the core of a sustainable business.'
BFAWU Scottish organiser Mark McHugh said: "Through the work we do representing workers and from talking to members it seems that too often the health and well-being, physical and mental, is a secondary consideration for the management of Mowi at Rosyth. At times it feels like the 'workers are treated worse than the fish'.
'This is contrary to their self congratulatory proclamations about how much they respect human rights. We are concerned that basic rights are not applied at their Rosyth plant. No adult should be told when to go to the toilet, if they can go and how long they can go for. It is ridiculous and wrong but sadly this is the culture that this report has exposed.'
(Image: Oxana Kolodina on Unsplash)
'If there was a functioning and proactive health and safety culture then many of the issues we have raised in the report would have been dealt with, the fact they haven't been demonstrates how unsatisfactory their approach is.'
An intervention in writing to the company during the writing of the report has resulted in some small improvements.
McHugh said: 'We have always said to Mowi that as a union we want to engage constructively with them to help make improvements to the terms and conditions of workers at Mowi in Rosyth.
'We believe this will benefit the workforce and indeed the company as a whole. We are as always ready to speak to the company and work with them to improve health and safety at Rosyth. We hope that they do so."
A spokesperson for Mowi said: "At Mowi, we take ethical employment, including the safety and wellbeing of our workforce, extremely seriously. We undergo regular unannounced audits by independent third parties to verify this. As such, we do take issue with the points raised by the BFAWU which are false and misleading.
"Mowi operates standard procedures in a processing plant. With regard to toilet breaks, there is no truth at all in the allegation that these are timed or limited to seven minutes. We do require an allocated number of people working on a line at any given time to keep it running. This is the same for any factory running a production line.
"Our compliance and practices are under constant review, checked internally and through regular independent external third-party audits. We have robust safety management practices in place. All roles and activities are risk-assessed by both qualified Health and Safety professionals and Occupational Health experts, and all advice provided by them is implemented. In addition, employees are actively encouraged to raise ideas, suggestions or concerns.
"We also have a Health and Safety Committee which meets each month and is represented by Safety Reps, adhering to the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employee) Regulations of 1996.
"On a practical level, just as one of many examples, we have invested several millions of pounds into new equipment which reduces the number of repetitive tasks carried out on site - choosing to engineer out risk rather than simply reducing it by asking employees to rotate between tasks.
"With regard to sickness benefit, we go further than statutory sick pay with an enhanced Company Sick Pay (CSP) policy. CSP is paid consistently, subject to the individual in question having met our sickness absence rules, which include keeping Mowi informed about the nature and expected duration of the absence. This is standard practice.
"Finally, with regard to wages, making simple pay comparisons to other countries ignores complex differences in cost of living, income tax rates and state benefits. Our reward structure is transparent and fair.
"Mowi is supportive of our colleagues' rights to join a union and to seek collective representation, should they wish."