Unilever has agreed to preserve the current terms and conditions for employees in its food division across Europe and Britain for a two-year period after the planned completion of its $65 billion merger with U.S. spice maker McCormick, according to a memo sent to staff.
The two-year commitment follows the companies' agreement and will bind the newly formed McCormick-Unilever Foods business until at least mid-2029. The arrangement governs the treatment and pay of the unit's European employees irrespective of shifts in business circumstances during that period.
Council memo and company comment
The European Works Council, which represents nearly 20,000 employees across Europe and Britain, said in its memo that "We have obtained commitments regarding the long-term protection of existing terms and conditions for affected employees." The memo was distributed to employees last week.
Unilever provided a statement emphasizing ongoing engagement: "We continue to engage constructively with our European and national works councils," a Unilever spokesperson said. "We have made good progress over the past few weeks and have agreed commitments in Europe regarding the protection of employees’ terms and conditions and consultation timelines."
Scope and context
The guarantee covers Unilever’s European and British food business, which employs about 4,800 people across those markets. That figure represents roughly one-third of Unilever’s regional workforce in Europe and Britain. The merger with McCormick was agreed in March and is expected to close in mid-2027, after which the two-year protection period will apply.
The protection length exceeds the typical post-transaction renegotiation timeline under European Union and United Kingdom rules. Under those frameworks, employee contracts and collective agreements can generally be renegotiated one year after sales or spin-off transactions. The two-year commitment therefore goes beyond statutory protections.
Unions’ position and broader efforts
The European Works Council has signaled concern that the merger could result in job losses and warned that prolonged uncertainty might provoke industrial action. Since the deal was made public, trade union federations and the European Works Council have been working to secure commitments for affected Unilever employees.
Union representatives say the two-year pledge in Europe falls short of a three-year package secured in a previous separation - the case involving Magnum - and they want similar protections extended more widely. "We would hope that the two-year guarantee is provided globally as to not send a message that workers outside of Europe are worth less than their European counterparts," said Sarah Meyer, assistant general secretary of the IUF, a global federation of trade unions whose membership includes thousands of Unilever employees. "We would hope that the same mistake is not repeated as with the ice cream separation where workers outside of Europe were not given the same guarantee on terms and conditions as workers within Europe," Meyer added.
Unilever has not agreed comparable terms for employees outside Europe, the memo and union statements indicate.
Implications
The arrangement secures worker protections in a sizable segment of Unilever’s business through mid-2029, but it leaves open questions about protections elsewhere in the company’s global operations. Both the European Works Council and trade unions continue efforts to negotiate further assurances for employees affected by the transaction.