The Warehouse staff frustrated by uncertainty of job losses

Wednesday, 4 July 2018

A Palmerston North Warehouse employee said staff were frustrated by the lack of clarity about how many of their jobs were on the chopping block.

The Warehouse workers are angry about management's plans to cut 180 jobs across 93 stores as the company refuses to say where the jobs will be lost.

Last Thursday, workers were told of the proposed cuts and restructure of the retail chain's lower management.

Each The Warehouse store has a manager, assistant store manager, team leaders and supervisors. The proposal is to simplify this to a store manager and a second-in-charge.

First Union national organiser Kate Davis said they were large stores, and it was baffling the company expected one second-in-charge to cover everything from customer complaints to stockroom issues.

It was even more baffling the company was refusing to give the union a regional breakdown of the job losses, she said.

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Knowing how many people will be affected in each region was vital to organising worker feedback on the proposed cuts, and support efforts for the affected staff, Davis said.

Union and worker representatives met with The Warehouse management on Tuesday, submitting a second formal written request for the breakdown without success.

The Warehouse refused to comment on the reasoning behind that decision.

Davis said they did, however, convince the company to extend the 10-day period, originally provided for staff feedback on the proposal, by one week.

'It's a grudging concession … it's disingenuous to call this proper consultation.

'Every restructure at a large company I've ever been involved with has at least a month for [submissions].'

A Palmerston North Warehouse employee, who asked not to be named, said staff were angry and frustrated by the proposal and the poor communication.

Eight staff expected to lose their jobs, but nobody knew for certain, which made it hard to plan for the future, she said.

'They're left worrying about how they are going to pay their mortgages, how they're going to feed their families.'

None of the workers had any faith in the submissions process, with such a short timeframe given, she said.

'It's just a cost cutting exercise.'

The employee said team leaders and supervisors were vital to deal with all the issues that popped up simultaneously in a large store.

'There's no way one person can do all that,' she said.

It would only get worse when the Christmas season rush hits, she said.

'They're going to come crawling back, saying 'we've made a big boo-boo' - but it'll be too late.'