DONER kebab factory workers in Germany have staged a fresh walkout in an ongoing dispute over their employer’s refusal to consider a collective agreement.

A new round of negotiations between Birtat Meat World SE, one of the country’s biggest kebab meat factories, based in Murr, Baden-Wurttemberg, and the Food, Beverage and Catering (NGG) union were due to start today, but union officials expressed anger after the company clarified that it was not meeting them to negotiate a collective agreement but merely for an exchange of views.

“With this approach, the employer has lost our trust. We are now drawing the necessary conclusions,” said NGG Stuttgart area managing director Magdalena Kruger.

The multinational workforce, with staff from Turkey, Kurdistan, Romania and Bulgaria, complain that there is no consistency in terms and conditions, with individual relationships and negotiating abilities meaning that some new recruits earn more than people who have been there for years.

The NGG wants a transparent pay structure, a basic rate of €3,000 (£2,600) a month and a €375 (£325) increase all round.

The workers chop up the meat, marinate it and push chunks of the raw produce onto long metal skewers. The meat is then shock-frozen and and delivered to restaurants all over Germany.

Birtat says it supplies thousands of kebab stands and fast food places, reaching more than 13 million consumers every month. The strikes, which have involved on-and-off walkouts 11 times since May, are the first in the German kebab meat industry.