The owner of a transport company whose buses were seen ferrying strike-breaking workers over the picket line at Jacob's Bakery said he was "beyond livid" when he found out what happened.
St Helens-based coach hire company Ellisons Travel sparked outrage among striking workers at the Jacob's factory in Aintree on Monday after driving employees over the picket line. But boss Andy Magowan said: "There's no way in my mind I'm going to order any employee of mine to cross a picket line. We've been duped."
He said the company had been hired by a third party, UK Minibus Hire, to take a group of people from the Tesco car park to the NHS Stores on Wareing Road, close to the Jacob's factory on Monday. But as the bus driver approached the area, he was told by a security guard on board to turn right onto the Jacob's site.
READ MORE: Staff at Jacob's say 'enough is enough' as they go on 'permanent strike'
UK Minibus Hire and another company involved both deny any attempt to mislead.
Mr Magowan said: "To say I am livid is an understatement.
"We were led to believe we were going to the NHS Stores on the industrial estate. We got the bookings the driver turned up on the day, and people got on. Then a security guard got on, which was a bit strange, and as the driver approached the industrial estate, instead of turning left to the NHS Stores, the guard told him to turn right through the picket line.
"It was a complete and utter charade. Jacob's was not mentioned in any of the correspondence we had at all. To say I'm angry is an understatement. You work hard for a reputation. You don't cross a picket line. It's just one of those things."
The coach was booked by UK Minibus Hire on behalf of another third party, Challenge TRG.
A UK Minibus Hire spokesman said: "I assure you there were no misleading intentions from our part, and Ellisons were provided exactly with details as provided by the person who made the booking on behalf of the group.
"We have booked transport for this group for the past two weeks, and there were no issues.
"At this point we cannot say anything more until we investigate deeper into what happened."
He added, however, that the company had been hired to book three separate bus runs - one two weeks ago, one last week, and one, with Ellisons, on Monday - and that strike action had only been mentioned in the first of these bookings.
A spokesperson from Challenge TRG said: “As a temporary labour provider, we have a duty to our colleagues to offer safe transport to work. We have done since the start of the strike action with the same daily instruction to our transport agent. At no time had this instruction been ambiguous to drive to another location other than the Jacob's factory.”
Around 650 employees at Jacob's Bakery began "all-out" strike action on Monday, November 14, following eight weeks of 12-hour walkouts in a fight for better pay.
Lisa Ryan, of the GMB Union, said the union had been contacted by Ellisons Travel and that they had been assured that the company would not be involved in any future picket line crossing.
She said: "The problem we have is the bus crossed three times. If it had crossed once that would have been acceptable, the fact is it crossed more than once.
"Although I do acknowledge they have terminated that contract, it's disappointing it took them three trips before that was the case."
Ms Ryan said that eight employees travelled on the first bus and a further two employees travelled on the second later in the day.
Mr Magowan said his company completed Monday's job as they had been paid for the day and were unable to get through to the people who booked the job. Afterwards, they cancelled the contract. He said: "We couldn't confirm what we were doing, so in the interest of being honourable we completed it. We wanted to speak first to the client to find out what was going on."
Ms Ryan added: "Around 99% of the workforce is behind the strike. Regarding finding a resolution, we're no closer at this moment in time. We've approached ACAS to see if there's anything they can do, because we've not had any word from the company since last week.
"We have tried to do things gradually to try and get our message across that these workers want a fair pay deal. It is all about pay now. The company offer is a long way off where we need to be. They keep coming back to us with the same pot of money, cut up in different ways to try and make it more appealing, but they aren't putting more money into the pot, which is the problem. This is a profitable company."
Pladis Global, which owns Jacob's Bakery, was approached for comment.
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