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Source: NZPA / Rob Tucker -
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There are claims industrial action will disrupt Christmas
shopping at New Zealand's biggest retailer, The Warehouse.
Staff are threatening to make this Christmas very un-merry for the
company by walking off the job during the busiest shopping season
of the year.
They are holding stopwork meetings this week over proposed
contract changes that could see them working 50-hour weeks, the
National Distribution Union (NDU) says.
The Warehouse promises everyone a bargain, but workers are
promising managers more trouble than they bargained for.
The workers say conditions are getting more stressful at the stores where more than 90% of New Zealanders shop.
"If we can't serve them, they can't buy anything," says Nathan Irwin an employee of The Warehouse.
Workers are angry the company wants them to put in 10-hour days at a fortnight's notice, with more having to work weekends because that's when most people are out shopping.
NDU organiser Simon Oosterman says if the company can pay a $1.6 million bonus to its CEO and a surprise $31.1 million to shareholders, it can afford to employ extra staff to work on those days.
The Warehouse says it is hiring an extra 2,000 workers, but that's the usual part-time force it picks up for the Christmas rush.
"We are very disappointed for our team members, but we will make
sure that our customers don't get disruption in service," says Ian
Morrice, The Warehouse chief executive.
The crucial three weeks until Christmas could become an industrial
battlezone, but so far management is holding the fort.
A number of union members walked off the job on Wednesday, but The Warehouse was still open for business. That's because the company hired extra staff to deal with that possibility and also because a number of the workers are not in the union.
The NDU covers just a quarter of the workforce, but vows those members will be putting up a fight this festive season.
Oosterman says The Warehouse has "Wal-Mart style employment plans", referring to the US company, which had "been recognised by human rights organisations and unions as the world's most anti-worker and anti-union company".
