SARIA’s operations in the UK are active in a wide range of sectors associated with the food chain.  The Group’s companies manufacture quality products for use in human and animal foodstuffs, agriculture, aquaculture, and industrial applications.  The company also produces bio-fuels and renewable energy and provides services for farming and the food industry.

SARIA Ltd is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the worldwide SARIA Group and has a UK annual turnover approaching £260 million, employing almost 1,000 people at 23 sites across the country.

Below is a graph showing our ‘gender pay gap’ across the UK, compared with that within the UK Manufacturing sector and on a National basis, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

These figures show the difference between the average hourly pay levels of all women compared to all men, irrespective of their role or grade in the organisation, expressed as a percentage of men’s average pay.

Our gap is predominantly due to a male-orientated workforce, making up over 85% of eligible employees.  This percentage is high due to the nature of our business and our working patterns, staffing a 24 hour / 7 day a week operation, working 12 hour shifts of days and nights.  Our Gender Pay Gap is further influenced by skilled employees, including electricians, mechanics and maintenance roles, which are historically filled more by a greater number of male employees in comparison to females.

There are also an increasing number of our female employees who choose to participate in family-friendly offerings, including childcare schemes and part-time/flexible working, which reduces the hourly rate accordingly.

However, improvements have been made on previous years’ figures due to encouraging promotion and recruitment of women into management and senior positions within the Company, supported by the introduction of an Agile Working Policy, which seeks to accommodate both men and women in achieving better work/life balance.

The ‘gender pay gap’ is an average figure taken from April 2020 pay data and is different to ‘Equal pay’, which looks at the comparison between men and women’s pay in equal value roles / jobs.

The graphs below illustrate SARIA Ltd’s gender distribution across hourly paid quartiles, each containing 215 / 216 employees:

Bonus payments do not form part of SARIA Ltd’s normal remuneration package and during the snapshot year, no discretionary bonuses were paid to managers.

SARIA Ltd operates its pay through a salary and grading structure, managed by Job Evaluation, which considers the following factors:

• Education & Level of Skill
• Proven Ability
• Managerial Responsibility
• Accountability
• Independence of Action
• Complexity
• Relationships – Internal & External
• Direction (Supervision Received)
• Pressure of Work
• Working Environment

The job evaluation process objectively assesses roles rather than their post-holders, thereby removing any reference to gender.  Roles are evaluated based on detailed job descriptions, and the requirements of the role as per the expectations of the role’s line manager.