Hundreds of Warehouse staff 'absolutely devastated' as they wait to find out if they will still have a job

September 11, 2020

First Union's Tali Williams says the company is looking to cut 5000 hours' in total.

Warehouse staff members are "devastated" over a proposed restructure that could see up to 320 jobs lost and roughly 5000 hours worth of work cut.

It was announced in June that The Warehouse would be restructuring, a plan it says was always in the works and was just brought forward due to Covid-19. 

Employees met with management yesterday to provide final feedback on the proposal and a verdict is set to be delivered next week.

The Warehouse says the rosters haven't been changed in years and the restructure is "necessary" in order to change its rosters to align them with hours that customers are in store - including on the weekend and in the evening.

First Union’s Tali Williams retail secretary says the number of hours the company is looking to cut is "roughly 5000 hours per week" which is "extremely drastic". 

"It may not seem like much to the company but it's everything to these workers.

"I spoke to a man the other day who's been working for the company for 23 years. The four hour cut to his income means he's not going to be able to feed his family, he's not going to be able to pay his bills."

Nick Grayston's comments come as the retailer eyes a restructure with over 1000 jobs potentially on the line.

She says staff are “absolutely devastated”.

“Over the next week the Warehouse CEO Nick Grayson has a massive decision to make over whether he’s going to proceed with this restructure which will mean massive hours cut to Warehouse stores across the country, or whether he’s going to do the right thing and put a halt to this.

“They're anxious about what their future will hold.”

In a statement provided to TVNZ1's Breakfast, the Warehouse says it is doing everything it can to help team members who might be facing redundancy, including the launch of a The Warehouse Group NZ Future Skills Fund to set them up for their next career. 

"As part of this process, The Warehouse has reached out to store team members to understand their rostered hours availability at each store and made some changes to proposed rosters as a result of their input so far. 

"Based on the input from our team The Warehouse has reached broad agreement with 30 stores on proposed new rostered hours that reflect customers’ needs. These stores are expected to move to updated rosters from early-October."

Ms Williams says Warehouse staff have launched a petition this morning to put a stop to the restructure, and they're calling on their customers for their support. 

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