Morrisons wields axe
SUPERMARKET giant Morrisons is set to make up to 83 staff redundant at its Stockton depot, according to union officials.
Unite, said 27 drivers, 10 office staff and more than 40 warehouse staff had entered into a 30-day consultation over their jobs.
Fazia Hussain, officer responsible for Morrisons depot members at Unite, said: “It was a complete shock, especially as the information we had initially was that there was an acquisition of 30 Co-op stores.
“We thought that was positive news, but due to that acquisition, the company said it was having to make redundancies in the North. It is also opening a depot in Sittingbourne, Kent, which meant they have to save costs elsewhere.”
She said the announcement could put pay to the final stages of negotiations over a new contract for drivers who had been taken on by Morrisons on full T&C from third party haulage contractor DHL two years ago.
“The major issue with the new contract was that if they were made redundant they would be on a statutory package rather than the more favourable DHL terms. The company had made a statement of intent, saying there were no plans for near future redundancies, so we were about to ballot members on it.”
Morrisons, which revealed a 7% rise in full-year pre-tax profits in March, said redundancies were a “last resort”.
A spokesperson said: “Our ambition is to avoid redundancies through a number of options, including offering staff alternative roles within the company.”
He said that a review of Morrisons’ network operations had identified that “we must re-balance the store volumes across the network to maintain the right service levels.
“The impact of this network realignment brings changes the volumes of work required from site to site.”
