WORKERS at Tunnock’s chocolate factory will see their pay packets snowball by around £1,500 each after securing pay rises rises of 8.7 per cent over two years.

The deal for workers at the company’s sole factory in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, is far in excess of the inflation rate.

Their trade union, Unite, which negotiated the deal with managing director Boyd Tunnock, said most of the workers will receive the full £1,500 in their salaries.

Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey said it was a blueprint for other employees to negotiate better wages, adding: “Inflation is on the rise at a time when pay is growing at a snail’s pace and for many workers not at all. Unite has achieved some real progress in pay for thousands of workers across Scotland.”

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He said the union had launched a new database which allows pay negotiators to check pay data for their region and industry.

“Unite has also launched a powerful new online tool to help workers protect themselves from attacks on their pay from employers following the fallout of the Brexit vote.

The new database will give union negotiators unparalleled access to pay data for their region and their industrial sector giving workers more power at the bargaining table.” with employers.”

Sales of Tunnock’s snowballs have remained high and profits in recent years have benefited from a decision by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs to reclassify them as a cake rather than a biscuit.

It comes at a time when much wage growth is stagnant. The Resolution Foundation think tank recently said falling living standards for low and middle income families are being threatened with the biggest rise in inequality since the 1980s.