Staffline Temps Keep the Pilgrim’s Enniskillen Line Moving

Unite has asked Northern Ireland’s employment agency inspectorate to examine Staffline temps at the Pilgrim’s Enniskillen plant, now in a sixth week of strike. The union says the agency is covering work done by about 130 striking members who make Fridge Raiders and Richmond sausages.

Staffline, not the meat company, is the party the 2005 Northern Ireland rules can take to court. Pilgrim’s Europe says there is no basis to the claim and that it is staying inside the law.

Staffline Is Still Hiring for the Line

Staffline Group plc supplies temporary labour across Pilgrim’s plants in Northern Ireland. Its client page still advertises evening shift temps in Enniskillen at £14.74 to £29.48 an hour, listed as temporary manufacturing work.

On 13 August, Staffline Workforce Solutions posted that it was hiring production operatives for Pilgrim’s Europe with immediate starts, all shifts, weekly pay and no experience needed. The post pointed applicants to an Enniskillen Staffline inbox and a referral bonus of up to £1,050.

Unite says it had already written to the agency. On 28 July the union formally told Staffline of its duties under the agency rules, weeks before the first walkouts and more than a month before that hiring post.

THE STRIKE CALENDAR

1. 28 July 2026: Unite writes to Staffline about the rules on labour during a strike.
2. Early August 2026: Pay walkouts begin at the Enniskillen plant.
3. 13 August 2026: Staffline advertises immediate-start production jobs for Pilgrim’s Europe.
4. 17 to 29 August 2026: A two-week stoppage runs after talks at the Labour Relations Agency break down.
5. 28 August 2026: Unite writes to the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland about production on the site.
6. 2 September 2026: All-out strike starts at 06:30.
7. 14 September 2026: Unite files its complaint with the employment agency inspectorate.

Greg O’Kane, Unite’s regional officer, said the agency had posted immediate-start ads for the factory “in recent days” when the union went public on 14 September. Staffline had not issued a reply in the material published with that complaint.

The Ban Sits on the Agency, Not the Plant

The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 set the test. Regulation 7 is a ban on supplying labour during a strike: an employment business must not send a work-seeker to do the duties normally performed by a worker on strike, or by someone moved onto those duties, unless it does not know and has no reasonable grounds for knowing that a strike is on.

Unofficial action is carved out. A lawful, notified strike is not. nidirect’s guide for agency workers puts the same limit in plain terms: an agency cannot send you in to do the work usually done by employees who are on strike.

That is why the 28 July letter matters. Once Staffline had been told a dispute was coming, the “we did not know” defence gets harder to run. Unite’s complaint still names Pilgrim’s Europe. The criminal duty in Regulation 7 is written for the employment business that supplies the people.

Pilgrim’s is desperately trying to continue production, rather than give the workers a fair pay increase. It’s illegal to bring agency workers in to cover striking workers and this matter must immediately be investigated and action taken.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, 14 September statement

A Pilgrim’s Europe spokesperson said the company only saw the accusation in the union’s weekend press release. “There is no basis to Unite’s claims,” the spokesperson said. “We are fully satisfied that we are operating in accordance with the law as we seek to mitigate the impact of strike action amongst a minority of employees at our Enniskillen site.”

The company thanked staff who have kept the site running. It has not published a headcount for Enniskillen, so the “minority” line cannot be checked against a full roster. Unite’s 130 members are the only firm number on the table.

11p Above the National Living Wage

The strike began as a pay fight. Lowest-paid staff at Enniskillen earn £12.82 an hour, 11 pence above the National Living Wage of £12.71 that took effect on 1 April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over, a 50 pence, 4.1 per cent rise.

Pilgrim’s Europe’s 2024 accounts, the first full year after Pilgrim’s UK, Moy Park and Pilgrim’s Food Masters were put under one European banner, show profit after tax of £128.4 million, up from £106 million, a 21.1 per cent rise. Revenue was £4.06 billion. The margin was 6 per cent, up from 4.2 per cent. The group says it runs more than 40 plants in the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands and employs more than 17,000 people. JBS, the Brazilian meat group, holds about 80 per cent of parent Pilgrim’s Pride.

THE RATES IN DISPUTE

The advertised evening band sits above the strikers’ floor even at the bottom of the range. The top of that band is the agency’s published spread, which can include premia, and is not a promise of take-home pay.

Pilgrim’s Europe said it had “already made a number of above-inflation pay offers”, backdated, “weighted towards those colleagues on the lowest pay”, and that Unite rejected them. Ivan Siqueira, president of Pilgrim’s Europe, said of the 2024 results that integration had strengthened the group’s market presence. He was speaking about the accounts, not the picket.

On 8 September Unite published a members’ survey from the Enniskillen site. 81 per cent said they had cut back on food. 79 per cent said they worked overtime to get by. 15 per cent said they held a second job, and in one case a third. 39 per cent had borrowed from a bank or credit union, 22 per cent from friends or family, and 3 per cent from a loan shark. Sharon Graham called it “a cruel irony that workers in a food factory can’t afford to feed their families.”

Why Morning Breaks Last Only 15 Minutes

Pay is only half the ballot. Unite says morning-shift workers are paid for 15 minutes of break, while evening and night shifts are paid for 30 minutes. That two-tier break is in every strike notice the union has issued since early August.

The company said it had “put forward proposals aimed at addressing concerns relating to paid breaks for day-shift employees.” It has not published the text of those proposals. Unite says they did not end the inequality, which is why the action went all-out on 2 September after three earlier weeks of stoppages.

Nuala Masterson, who has worked at the factory for more than 20 years, said the job runs from half six in the morning to three in the afternoon, on their feet, in the cold of a food hall. “And definitely I think that the circumstances warrant more pay than we are getting,” she said. Donal McShea, four years in, said people were taking a financial hit on the line, including colleagues with 25 years’ service, and would “stick it out as long as we have to.”

Buses From Armagh Fill the Gaps

The agency fight is about who is doing that work now. O’Kane said the number of workers being bussed into Pilgrim’s daily from Armagh, less than an hour away, had “surged.” Noreen Daly, the Unite representative at the plant, said skilled staff were out and inexperienced cover was being brought in from other factories.

They have workers in there being bussed from different factories, but they don’t have the skill that these guys have. The morning shift there’s 50 of them out here and they’re all skilled workers. So it has to impact production massively.

Noreen Daly, Unite representative, Enniskillen

Plamena Marinova, three years at the plant, said unskilled cover would not run Fridge Raiders at the same speed. Daly called the all-out action a “long-term strike” and said nobody wanted to be on a picket line. About 40 workers stood in the rain at a busy Enniskillen roundabout, away from the factory gate, when she spoke in the first week of September.

WHAT STRIKERS DESCRIBE

• The buses: O’Kane says daily runs from Armagh have increased; Daly says people are also coming from other factories.
• The morning line: Daly puts 50 skilled morning-shift workers on the picket, not at their stations.
• The skill gap: Marinova says Fridge Raiders will not run at the usual speed with unskilled cover.
• The roundabout: the main picket sits on a busy approach to town, not at the plant gate.

Unite NI posted from that picket when the two-week August stoppage resumed.

Pilgrims workers in Enniskillen are back out on the picket line this morning for a further week of strike action in pursuit of a decent pay increase and paid breaks ✊ #solidarity pic.twitter.com/fwLAUIzQBM

— Unite the Union NI (@UniteunionNI) August 17, 2026

The louder public argument is still the snack packs. Unite’s own appeal about Fridge Raiders, Richmond sausages and Mr Brain’s products leaving Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda shelves drew little debate about Staffline. The buses, and the criminal test that sits on the agency, have not become the fight people argue online.

What the Inspectorate Can Do Next

The Employment Agency Inspectorate, inside the Department for the Economy, polices the 2005 rules. Unite’s formal complaint to the inspectorate asks it to count the agency workers on site and to test whether they are doing work normally done by staff on strike. nidirect sets out the official complaint route for agency workers if a firm breaks those limits.

If the inspectorate finds a serious breach, it can recommend prosecution. Guidance for agencies in Northern Ireland says a case in the magistrates’ court can bring a fine of up to £5,000 for each offence, and that the inspectorate can also seek a prohibition order that bars someone from running an employment business.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The warning: Unite wrote to Staffline on 28 July, before the first Enniskillen walkouts.
• The ads: Staffline advertised immediate starts for Pilgrim’s Europe on 13 August and still lists an Enniskillen evening temp role.
• The complaint: Unite asked the inspectorate on 14 September to investigate numbers and duties.
• The denial: Pilgrim’s Europe says there is no basis to the claim and that it is complying with the law.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Headcount: how many agency workers are on the Enniskillen line, and on which jobs.
• Duties: whether those temps are doing work normally done by the 130 strikers.
• The file: whether the inspectorate has opened an investigation, or when it might say so.
• Staffline’s case: the agency has not published a legal defence of the Enniskillen bookings.
• HSENI: no public finding on Unite’s 28 August production letter.

Until those points are answered, the company’s “no basis” line and the union’s “criminal offence” line sit side by side. Regulation 7 is not a vibes test. It turns on who is doing which job, and on what the agency knew when it sent them.

Fridge Raiders Stay on Shop Shelves

Enniskillen turns out Fridge Raiders, Richmond sausages, Mr Brain’s pork faggots, Denny sausages for the Republic of Ireland, Rollover sausages sold at football grounds, and vegan sausages. Fridge Raiders is the lunchbox brand Unite has used to warn of empty shelves as schools went back.

BRANDS TIED TO THE SITE

• Fridge Raiders: the snack packs Unite says will slow first if skilled staff stay out.
• Richmond sausages: the breakfast line named in every strike notice since 2 September.
• Mr Brain’s, Denny, Rollover: the other branded lines Unite lists on the same factory.

In early September a Pilgrim’s Europe spokesperson said there were no product shortages. The same statement said the company remained open to talks and was “grateful to our wider employees for their support in maintaining operations.” Unite says production has been “severely impacted” and that stocks were already under pressure before the all-out phase.

Those two accounts can both be true for a time. A plant can run slowly on temps and still feed retailers from frozen stock. Daly’s point is that the skilled morning shift is not on the line. The company’s point is that orders are still being met. Neither side has released output figures for Enniskillen.

The all-out strike that began at 06:30 on 2 September is still running. Staffline’s Enniskillen evening vacancy is still on the Pilgrim’s client list. The inspectorate has not said whether it will look at who is on the buses from Armagh.