Investment conference hit by protests over ‘fire and rehire’ accusations for sponsor Pemberton

The Miami Global Alts investment conference has been hit by protests against sponsor Pemberton’s links to allegedly exploitative employment practices in the UK.

Pemberton Asset Management is the owner of Wrexham-based ready-meal maker Oscar Mayer, which Unite claimed is attempting to ‘fire and rehire’ low paid workers to cut wages by up to £3,000.

Pemberton is a ‘silver tier’ sponsor of Global Alt, and its head of net asset value financing, Thomas Doyle, is speaking at the event.

Unite urged Global Alt attendees – such as the Office of the New York City Comptroller, New York State Common Retirement fund, Norges Bank and the Guy’s & St Thomas Foundation – not to invest in Pemberton until the policies in question are scrapped at Oscar Mayer.

The same call was made to local council pension funds across the UK, which currently have around £700m tied up in investments linked to Pemberton.

Clwyd Pension Fund, for retired council workers across North East Wales, pledged not to invest anymore in Pemberton after discovering that £5.6m of member funds were indirectly invested in the business.

Sharon Graham, general secretary at Unite, said: “Pemberton’s refusal to halt the disgraceful actions at Oscar Mayer are putting its wider relationships at risk.

“Current and potential investors, whether in the UK or overseas, won’t want to be associated with a firm that is ok with such abhorrent employment practices.

“There will be no hiding place. Unite will be relentless in pursing Pemberton until fire and rehire at Oscar Mayer is scrapped.”

A spokesperson from Oscar Mayer said: “In the context of the commercial challenges faced by the business, operational changes implemented by the management of Oscar Mayer and significant capital injections by Pemberton have saved over 2,500 jobs.

“The recent changes to employee terms, which resulted in an average loss of £20 per week for impacted employees, were triggered by the loss of a significant contract, which represented 25% of the business volume at the Wrexham production facility.

“The alternative would have been a reduction in capacity at the Wrexham production site, resulting in a large number of redundancies, impacting up to 500 employees.

“Under these circumstances, the changes introduced are absolutely necessary to ensure that Oscar Mayer can continue to be a long-term sustainable business and protect jobs in the local community.

“Without these changes the reality is that all jobs at our Wrexham site would have been at risk.”