Staff at The Warehouse Birkenhead told store will close next month

Thursday, 4 June 2020

The closure of The Warehouse Birkenhead in Auckland reflects changing shopping habits, the retail giant says. (File photo)

The Warehouse in Birkenhead will close on July 19, workers have been told.

In a meeting on Tuesday, staff were told that there would be no change to the retailer's May 19 proposal to close the store.

Sales assistant Kylie Munday said she was disappointed with The Warehouse's decision to close and angry with how the process was conducted.

Munday, who has worked at the store for more than a decade, said the closure would hurt the elderly in the community, and those without transport to go' to the larger stores.

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'This whole process was very rushed from when we found out,' ,' Munday said.

'The company needs to know that they have all left us really devastated, and we have families, lives, mortgages. Some people are over 55 years old who work there and they are going to struggle to get jobs.'

Munday said staff at the Birkenhead store had been loyal to the company and many had worked there for over 10 years.

There were no tangible efforts for redeployment to other stores, she said.

'I now have to go find a job so that I can keep paying my mortgage.

'I have lost my job but I don't want to lose my house as well,' Munday said.

First Union organiser Kate Davis said she had taken part in many redundancy meetings and this was one of the worst processes she had seen.

None of the jobs being publicly advertised at stores owned by The Warehouse Group in Auckland had been reserved for staff from the Birkenhead store.

In May The Warehouse chief executive Pejman Okhovat, said Covid-19 and the rising popularity of online shopping had placed pressure on stores.

Staff were also not clear on how long they would need to work after the store officially closed to help pack up remaining merchandise and shelving, she said.

There was no emotional support given to workers when the closure was announced, Davis said.

'Staff were in tears and there weren't even tissues,' she said.

Davis said she was concerned for staff at other stores that could be facing a similar process.

'If our largest retailers can handle redundancies so poorly then what hope is there for the rest of the workers.

'Do better,' she said.

In a statement, Pejman Okhovat, chief executive of The Warehouse, said it had ensured all affected team members had visibility of all roles available to them across The Warehouse store network.

'Our recruitment partners will be making regular visits to the Birkenhead store over the following weeks ensure all team members have the support they need to move into suitable available roles at other Auckland stores.

'Our top priority is to ensure our team members have the support they need, and our Employee Assistant partner OCP were available to team members at the meeting, and this service is also available to our team members and their families at any time.

'The proposal to end the lease was discussed with the landlord 12 months ago, with the intention to renew for 12 months whilst the landlord commenced refurbishments to the shopping mall which didn’t eventuate during the timeframe.'

In May, Okhovat, said the proposal to close the Birkenhead store reflected changing shopping habits.

'This has been the case in Birkenhead for a while, with many in the area shopping at the nearby Glenfield store which includes a Warehouse Stationery, just a few minutes away, or at our flagship store in Albany,' Okhovat said.

Covid-19 and the rising popularity of online shopping had put increasing pressure on some of the company's stores, he said.

'In terms of other stores, with the economic impact of Covid-19 and the anticipated decline in retail sales, we expect these declines to be exacerbated,' he said.