UNITE has won a sweet pay deal for workers at bakery giant Tunnock amounting to a rise of nearly 10 per cent over two years.

Britain’s biggest union secured an 8.7 per cent pay increase up to June 2018 for hundreds of workers at the Lanarkshire-based Tunnock’s factory, which makes the popular Tunnock’s teacakes, caramel wafers and snowballs.

The increase will raise most full time workers’ pay by around £1,500. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said that the union had achieved “real progress” in pay for thousands of workers across Scotland at a time when inflation is on the rise and “pay is growing at a snail’s pace and for many workers not at all.”

As a result the union has launched a comprehensive pay claim guide on how trade unionists can secure fair pay deals and improve conditions.

Mr McCluskey said the “revolutionary” online tool will allow the union’s negotiators to access a database of thousands of pay deals across Scotland.

He claimed the database will arm union negotiators with details of the latest and best pay deals and employers won’t be able to twist facts and make bold claims about their pay offers.

It is the first time the trade union movement has developed such a comprehensive database of pay deals which Unite argues will “drive forward a co-ordinated pay strategy and help protect workers’ pay packets from the potential impact of Brexit.”