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Union officials are today holding talks with a representative of one of the world's largest private equity companies over the mistreatment of workers.

The GMB union is meeting with Permira managing partner Damon Buffini to discuss staff concerns over their job security, salary and pension arrangements.

Permira shed more than 3,000 jobs when it bought breakdown provider AA in 2004, and workers were also affected by the closure of Birds Eye's Hull factory last year.

Ahead of the meeting, GMB official Paul Maloney said that he had "nothing against people becoming rich", but only if it did not come at the expense of employees.

"People are becoming rich day by day, but when they're becoming rich on the backs of people like [those] who worked in the AA and Birds Eye Wall's, throwing them on the scrapheap and doing them out of their pensions and exploiting the rest of the workforce, - we've got a problem with that," he told the Today programme.

The official said he would not allow Mr Buffini to justifiably claim Permira had created jobs at hotel chain Travelodge.

"Travelodge was bought from the Forte empire and part of that was Little Chef. You hear the half good story of what happened in Travelodge, but if you then take what's happened in the Little Chef area - most of the restaurants up and down the country were closed."