Argos warehouse staff to strike

Staff at the Argos Distribution Centre in Heywood will strike tomorrow (Friday 4 July) in a dispute over terms and conditions, which will mean increased weekend working.

About 1,000 warehouse staff employed by Argos at five distribution centres will strike for 24 hours - the Heywood strike will start at 6.30am.

Unite the country’s largest union that represents the workers, predicts that the disruption to customer deliveries by the online shopping giant will be ‘substantial’.

Unite national officer for road transport and logistics, Matt Draper, said: “The crux to the dispute is Argos’ determination to push through a new 24/7 shift pattern, without offering our members a decent compensation package to offset the severe disruption to their personal and family lives at weekends.

“In many cases, it is going to cause havoc with childcare arrangements and mean spouses and partners will see much less of each other. The company’s plans will seriously undermine the ‘work/life’ balance.

“Some of our members already work weekends, but that was agreed with Unite. The new proposals impact much more on family life. The management has offered a one-off payment of £2,400, which, quite frankly, is woefully inadequate, given the massive changes in shift patterns that are being proposed for the years ahead.


“We urge the employer to return to the negotiating table and relax the new strict criteria. This would allow us to reach agreement, once the management has recognised the impact its plans will have on our members’ lives.”

The workers previously staged a 24 hour strike on 15 June against these plans.

A spokesperson for Argos said: “Argos has a five-year transformation plan to
become a digital retail leader, which involves matching our digital and in-store services to customers' shopping preferences. Distribution colleagues are key to the success of this plan, and we are proposing 350 new permanent distribution jobs as part of this process.


“We have also proposed changes to our distribution employees’ terms and conditions and have been engaging colleagues to introduce them. 99.8 per cent of our distribution colleagues have already accepted the changes to their contract, and we are working hard to understand and address any outstanding queries or issues.

“We believe the proposed changes represent the best outcome for the security of our colleagues and Argos alike. As such, we are now asking colleagues to accept the changes to their contract in order to help us realise our transformation plan.

“We have been advised of the strike, and have contingency plans in place to ensure a normal service for our customers.”