UNIONS in Scotland are furious with McVitie’s decision to issue redundancy notices to staff despite ongoing discussions over the Glasgow factory’s future.

Unite Scotland and GMB have confirmed that the workforce at the Tollcross site in the East End were contacted about redundancies today, with concerns bosses are not engaging in attempts to save jobs. 

Nearly 500 jobs are at risk at the factory, which opened almost 100 years ago. 

The maker of Hobnobs and Rich Tea biscuits, run by parent company Pladis, has reportedly refused to engage with the newly established action group set up to prevent the factory's closure, chaired by the Finance and Economy Cabinet Secretary Kate Forbes.

Union bosses have called for Pladis managing director David Murray to be “hauled” before the panel of council, industry and union chiefs, which was set up by the Scottish government to save the factory.

Unite industrial officer Pat McIlvogue said that Mr Murray is “refusing to engage with the action group,” accusing Pladis of taking a “belligerent and arrogant approach.”

Turkish-owned Pladis has blamed “excess capacity” at its British sites and now plans to shutter the Glasgow factory in the second half of 2022 and move production elsewhere.

Mr McIlvogue said: “Pladis have a duty of care to hundreds of workers to jointly discuss with us what could be done to save jobs instead of this belligerent and arrogant approach which they have adopted.”

An online petition to save the factory currently has more than 52,000 signatures.

GMB Scotland organiser David Hume said that the redundancy notices were an “act of extreme bad faith” and “a gross insult to hundreds of workers and their families who are fighting for their livelihoods and community.”