The Warehouse accused of taking advantage of lockdown to push through restructure

Despite Alert Level 3 restrictions, the company is holding store-wide meetings on Tuesday.

The Warehouse is being accused of taking advantage of Auckland's lockdown to push through restructure plans that'll bring big job losses.

Despite Alert Level 3 restrictions, the company is holding store-wide meetings on Tuesday.

Despite Alert Level 3 restrictions, it's holding store-wide meetings on Tuesday, and First Union says it’s not only reckless, but unfair.

One worker, who’s been working for the retail giant for 15 years, told 1 NEWS, “We've just been told there's a meeting on Tuesday and they want us to all be there”.

She’s spoken out anonymously, saying contractually, “you’re not allowed to speak to the media.”

The company's been consulting over plans to cut up to 750 roles.

In a statement to 1 NEWS, The Warehouse Group’s Chief HR Officer, Richard Parker, said this week’s meetings are “to update team members on a consultation process that began in June, regarding changes to our store rosters.”

“This is the required next step for that process.”

There will be full team meetings, and some stores will also have one-on-ones.

The union says it was only informed on Friday.

“I believe they're trying to push this through at a time of lockdown, and take advantage of the situation,” First Union’s Tali Williams said.

It’s concerned about the health and safety of workers.

“We believe that it's reckless, to be holding gathering of up to 50 people in every warehouse store, in a confined space, at the time of lockdown, at a time where the government says this is not something we should be doing,” Ms Williams said.

“We have workers in these stores in the at-risk category, being told to come in,” she said.

The company says this is not the case, saying it won’t require attendance from anyone who is at risk, or not rostered on.

The worker 1 NEWS spoke to said, “I’m not sure how we would all be able to hear it and stay a metre a part.”

The company today saying it will “utilise the entire shop floor for appropriate social distancing, and PPE measures also will be in place”.

The union says they’ve also been in touch with a number of Auckland workers who don’t live in the region.

“Some people for example in Tuakau, we've been contacted by some workers who are unable to cross the border to come into these meetings due to government restrictions,” Ms Williams said.

“It's madness to bring these people, almost force them to break the rules, to attend these meetings.”

On top of that, First Union’s concerned workers won’t have correct representation.

“A massive anxiety of our members is that we're unable to be there for them cause of the restrictions we have about being in sites at this time.”

"We can go to one or two meetings, but a lot of organisers have multiple Warehouse stores in their patch... so they're not going to be able to be in multiple places at once.

“We don’t want to put our organisers at risk going into these confined spaces with a high number of people. It just needs to be put off. It needs to be delayed. There's no sense in it.”

The union is calling for government intervention.

Mr Parker, from the Warehouse Group, reassured 1 NEWS that Alert Level 3 rules will be followed.

He said the company told team members on August 11 that next week it would be sharing updates on the restructure.

“We have made arrangements for Union delegates to attend,” he added.

The worker 1 NEWS spoke to plans to take voluntary redundancy, but said “it's not going to be easy looking for another job, a lot of us are older women.”

Ms Williams said, “75 per cent of Warehouse workers are female and as we know it's female workers that have the highest impact from Covid in terms of job loss or hours reductions.”

Women already make up 90 per cent of jobs lost in these covid times.

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