production operator

associate

controller

farm hand

night watch staff

Moy Park

Worked various jobs in different departments over four years of service. Enjoyed working with food production machinery the most.

Hardest part was being on a production line doing with no change overs doing the same product all of the shift.

Pay was alright but can get much more in another factory for the same level of job.

Different pay grades for different jobs, with some having more responsibility than others.

Pretty busy around summer/xmas time so kept on my feet around seasonal peak times. A good bit of overtime around them periods too.

Many different nationalities so a level of patience and understanding is needed at times. Mostly friendly atmosphere among operatives, had some great laughs.

Most of management and others in positions of authority are biased, lack logic and reason, self contradictory, inconsiderate, aggressive and have been known the prey on and bully the weak. Unable to use effective communication at work! It is amazing how a job title and the color of a hair net can manipulate a person into thinking that they can treat and talk to people how they feel and require those around them to worship them as gods!

Work life balance was good for full time workers. Temps treated like dirty and too much was expected of them at times!

Canteen was clean, food was good and affordable.

Factory shop was great used to get a really good deal on chicken for a fiver!

Free turkey and xmas dinner in December. 

Breaks needed to be longer! By the time you got your PPE off it was time to come back and then you were punished for being a few mins late.

In my department the toilets were regularly cleaned and pretty modern, but other department were disgusting and needed a severe upgrade!

Absence trigger system unfair at times, needs more thought!

I remember being excited about starting my first "graduate job" for the biggest company in Northern Ireland. This proved to be the worst job I have ever had in my career to date for so many reasons. I was young and naive at the time and was so excited to have landed a job with graduate in the title. It was so bad I left after a few weeks. Leaving after the first few weeks was the best thing I ever did as my career has gone on from strength to strength since. 

- Work I had to do was boring, repetitive and not challenging. A job stacking shelves would be more rewarding and challenging.
- Pathetic pay - a job stacking shelves actually pays better.
- Lack of opportunities for career advancement.
- Worst HR department I have ever witnessed - warning bells should have sounded when a placement student was basically running it
- Lack of a proper induction - the one I got involved signing a form to approve of working over the maximum number of hours a week set out in law. It took 2 weeks before I got properly set up on the computer system.
- Long hours - awful work/life balance
- Unqualified management who didn't seem to care about my concerns.
- Depressing workplace environment - the place stank and it was rare to find someone who spoke English. The canteen resembled what I imagine a prison canteen to be like.
- Poor staff morale - everyone I talked to was depressed. 
- The actual area the factory is located is also depressing - middle of nowhere. There was nowhere to go out for lunch etc. 
- Seeing first hand the exploitation of foreign workers - paying them minimum wage for long hours doing repetitive demoralising tasks. The type of work that is so bad they can't get any local people to apply for it. No wonder they are so pro EU.

To anyone who has any ambition in life - please avoid here at all costs.

HR team practically useless and a burden on the company, always looking at ways to penalise good people just to hit their KPI's.
Working environment very fragmented and hostile. Conditions for workers extremely poor and borderline illegal. Operatives not respected at all, and their union are in the pockets of Moy Park. Workers wages in Ballymena are the lowest paid within the Moy Park group, with the least amount of worker rights and benefits.
Managers put under pressure to work staff to the bone, not allowed to manage their staff properly in order to have a happy and efficient team. It's all about daily fire fighting and hammering workers just to get through the day, due to the wider businesses atrociously poor planning. 
Other sites a pleasure to work in, Ballymena is the runt of the family. Currently forcing long term staff out of their jobs as it's common knowledge that the Ballymena site will close in 2018, therefore not having to pay out the well earned redundancy packages, just another example of how they treat people who have been loyal with 20-25years service. That's how they treat their management, so you get a fair idea of how lower levels are treated.

First of all the managers treat you like something they have brought in on their shoe. pay is terrible. nothing you ever do is right.
Freezing cold in the factory and deafeningly loud.
Treated like a slave. half an hours main break has to factor in the long trek to the toilets and canteen, plus taking off and putting back on wellingtons, white coat, apron, arm guards, gloves and liners.
If you do not wear liners your fingers would probably drop off as the meat is so cold. My fingers would be achingly cold and by the time break came, when they thawed out it would be time to go back in to get them frozen all over again.
Work is so monotonous you could fall asleep. only you can't as the cold keeps you awake.
As an English speaker I was individually picked on by the manager for being a minute late after break, no-one else was anywhere to be seen, the line hadn't started but he took delight in having a go at me and only me.
The most enjoyable part of the job was clocking out at 2am. to go home and not be able to sleep as i had gone beyond the tired barrier.
And as for the free Christmas lunch I wouldn't serve it to a dog.

a typical day at work:-
06:00 arrive at work
06:25 finish my day's work
06:25-14:00 vegetate at my desk until 14:00

What I learned/had confirmed:-
Management reacts but does not know what management is and is generally incompetent. The food industry is not filled with intellectuals. They might have education in (e.g.) food hygiene but not experience of work/life..

Management:-
Nice but dumb; ill-educated oafs; self-centred; cutthroats; some were vipers. They saw me as a threat when they realised I was better educated than they were and better experienced and I knew more about their jobs than they did.

Your co-workers:-
I miss them, mostly.

The hardest part of the job:-
Having responsibility (for which I was not paid) without management backup. Withholding of overtime payment by management.

The most enjoyable part of the job:-
Problem solving.
Interaction with colleagues.

a typical night shift in moypark i was in cook side on the lines as a packer sorting and packing already cooked chicken breasts nd half cooked chicken into packages, i learned that team work an good listening is essential to that role of work as to fulfill the expectations/deadlines set by the team leaders. co workers where foreign nationals although most could speak little English so it wasnt to bad if i needed a helping hand or likewise.As a casual worker i was relying on texts to the mobile to ensure i had work the next night which isn't reliable at all as at most i got three days a week. i in term left moypark as for 9 countable night over a few months i was sent home in the early hours of the morning with no word of broken down machines and  with few hours pay i was ending up down 14 pound or so due to travel especially when a full nights work is 50 pound . it was costing more to get there and back, and for them to be sending me home ,, i did not enjoy this one bit!! full-time permanent rota shift is what i'm after

Moy Park is a great place for young people to find work when living as a student, given the reasonable salary granted to people of that age and thereabouts. Full-time work, however, may be more difficult to obtain due to the competition for overtime within the company. It is also difficult to balance with student life if one has a full timetable, and I had absolutely no free time on the weekends as a result. Management and co-workers are a mixed bag, depending on who you get to know, but the company takes its employees very seriously, so that is a comfort. The work can be difficult if you are not used to manual labour, but if you have experience, it should be straightforward enough. 

Note - I know nothing about the CEO, so do not take my approval to mean anything. It is simply a required box to tick.

Need dress in warm clothes because in factory is cold.
You can be placed in any work position like fork on line, to work in mixing room or even work outside.
Learn about food what i am eating myself and how its made.
Don't like that you can be called to work even you have been said that you have off and sometimes when you get to work they make you wait 15-30 min and send you home because they don't need you that day. Mostly you can't even plan out holidays. Sometimes you got feeling that you are a slave and you don't get any respect. Mostly if you work from agency. But there is good people to.
Well it depends on people, some can be fast with hands, some good in physical form, so it depends in what position you are put in to work. Some position may seem easy for you, but hard for other.
Most enjoyable part of work is tea-break, because you can get in warm and nice cafeteria with different and tasty food.

Got a job here in the midst of losing my previous job due to Covid thinking that there social distancing would be implemented effectively. There is none of this happening at Moy Park, of course it is not the company’s fault as they cannot always ensure these measures are adhered to, but the staff within do not care. Workers are not social distancing within the changing rooms, when walking to their work station, when clocking in and out. There are screens in place on the lines, however staff are coming too close to comfort when talking to you. I was being trained on product control (no choice of my own) which involved the use of a computer and of course it is impossible to be shown a computer screen at 2M distance, especially from an individual who speaks little English so it was important that I seen the screen to understand properly. Left after a few days, the importance of social distancing is truely underestimated here.

Some bits good some bits terrible. Depend where you work because some departments appear to have happy team members. Some departments have bad directors and controllers treating staff like piece of chicken. When workers say something they are in trouble, no one at the top listen to us only people in charge matter. Work busy and there are times it needs to be but others just managers that don’t understand empowerment and keep checking on workers for nothing. Pay and benefits are fair. Directors earn a lot but little chance to get there if you are not in ‘the gang’ or your personality don’t fit.
Company lost good people some been there 10 20 years but new structure doesn’t  recognize what they done and sacrificed for work.
Shame as could be great business if board paid attention and sorted off bad directors and managers 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Production operator 79 salaries reported	£13.35 per hour
Associate 32 salaries reported	£13.84 per hour
Controller 25 salaries reported	£14.72 per hour
Farm hand 29 salaries reported	£12.93 per hour
Night watch staff 19 salaries reported	£15.81 per hour

Working at Pilgrim's Europe: company overview and reviews

Pilgrim's Europe

Pilgrim's Europe ratings

Popular jobs at Pilgrim's Europe

Salary satisfaction

Jobseeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected