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First Union says The Warehouse has made the wrong decision to go ahead with a proposed restructuring under which hundreds of jobs and thousands of weekly work hours could be cut.
The store.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The restructuring will affect 92 warehouses across the country, and the equivalent of 320 full-time positions, the company confirmed.
The union’s finance and retail secretary, Tali Williams, said staff gathered for morning meetings and were told by store managers that the reductions in store-wide hours will continue and workers will now begin the process of Re-apply for positions, consider voluntary layoffs, and implement new lists.
He said 5000 hours of work could be cut a week and more will come.
“There is a lot of stress and anxiety among workers when they find out about the new payrolls that in their cases will mean significant cuts in their working hours, making it very unsustainable for them in terms of weekly earnings.”
Williams said the alternate roles offered will not be comparable to current ones, so individuals will be entitled to redundancy, meaning hundreds of people could lose their jobs.
“The workers are absolutely devastated, they feel unsure what it will mean for their future,” he said.
“When the company has obtained about $ 52 million in government wage subsidies in recent months, it is a wrong decision. The reason these wage subsidies exist is to avoid job cuts.”
He said the union filed a petition signed by 5,500 Warehouse customers, but management ignored it.
“We are also disappointed that the company has not only ignored the opinions and concerns of its workers, but also of customers.”
A Warehouse spokesperson said that since meetings with staff members are ongoing, they cannot comment on specific changes.
“While we’re never happy to have to make changes that may affect people’s roles, our store lists haven’t changed for many years. Over time, we’ve found that more customers choose to shop at night and on weekends. , and more customers are buying online and using Click & Collect, particularly since Covid-19, “they said in a statement.
The Noel Leeming and Warehouse Stationery stores will not be affected.
The process, which began in June, has consisted of working with First Union and store team representatives to understand the availability of their listed hours, discuss how customers’ shopping habits are changing, and how they need to adapt the listed hours. for each store, according to the spokesperson.
The Warehouse has reached broad agreement with 30 stores on the proposed new listing times and these stores are expected to move to updated listings beginning in early October.
The spokesperson says the company has started a series of meetings this week with the remaining stores where the availability provided did not match the proposed listings.
