FOOD workers’ low pay does not reflect their value to society, bakers’ union leader Sarah Woolley has told MPs.

Giving evidence to the environment, food and rural affairs committee inquiry, Fairness in the Food Supply Chain, she slammed poor pay and working conditions across the industrday

She highlighted the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’s report, Foodworkers on the Breadline, which showed clear evidence of how so many workers in the sector could not afford to purchase the goods that they themselves produced.

She said: “Food workers are key workers who keep the nation fed.

“They were pivotal in ensuring people were fed during the pandemic.

“Shamefully, the value that food workers bring to our society is not reflected in their wages and working conditions.”

MPs were told of how food workers have experienced a decade of austerity and falling pay, exacerbated by wages that have nowhere near kept up with rising inflation.

“Yet, at the same time as food workers worry about feeding their own families, shareholders of the major supermarkets have seen their ordinary dividends soar to the highest level since 2015, with Tesco alone paying out £859 million last year,” Ms Woolley added.

“The food sector is blighted by unfairness, low pay, zero-hours contracts, short term, temporary contracts and often the exploitation of migrant workers.

“Food workers are not getting a fair deal and it is high time that as a country we value much more the work of food workers and give them the fair deal that they need and deserve.”

Ali Capper, the executive chairwoman of British Apples and Pears, told the committee that a “strategic change” was required to “start championing” produce grown locally.