One of the great successes of the cut-price retail trend that has taken off on the nation’s high streets is finding itself negotiating the uncertain waters of industrial relations.
Wilko, the family business founded in Leicester in 1930 as Wilkinsons, has seen its profits hit in recent years, with the pandemic and lockdown causing particularly heavy damage. As a result, its management team is embarking on a major consultation with staff and the unions about achieving what it sees as essential cost savings through redundancy. Areas most likely to be affected include many in the Nottingham area such as Newark, Mansfield, Burton, Coalville and Sutton-in-Ashfield.
The argument over bonuses
The timing of the consultation is unfortunate for the company. It coincides with two developments which do not reflect well on its employee relations ethos. The first issue is one of money, specifically the bonuses paid to managers, which are said to be unaccountably generous at a time of economic hardship.
Wilko insists that all staff, not just management, have been awarded what it calls ‘thank you’ payments for the 20-21 financial year. However, the GMB union, which represents Wilko’s employees, puts the basic level of extra remuneration at just £250, while the rate swiftly and steeply increases through the company’s management levels. The managers’ bonuses, according to a spokesperson, were a reward for ‘meeting specified targets at a company and individual level’.
The argument over sick-pay
Wilko’s other headache is the result of its decision to reform its sick-pay arrangements. Previously, employees were entitled to three periods of sickness on company pay in each year before reverting to statutory sick pay, currently set at £96.35. The new proposals seek to cut this to just one period of sick leave on full pay. The spokesperson openly attributes this move as a response to abuses of the system: “Having unsuccessfully worked with our union to try to reduce absence, we’re now changing our policy to reduce abuse of it by some team members.’
The GMB points to what it sees as the injustice of making members of Wilko’s management teams exempt from these proposals and is balloting its members on possible strike action in its attempts to have the proposals scrapped and a new policy drawn up which treats all employees at any level equally.
A perfect storm
Wilko is pursuing its regional redundancy project in up to 30 stores against this turbulent backdrop. Its spokesperson says it needs to find “different ways of working” which involves “making sure we’ve the right team members in the right places at the right times serving customers when and where they want to shop with us.” Wilko defends its record of looking after its employees, staying open during the pandemic to serve its customers and rewarding loyalty and hard work.
This view arouses little sympathy with workers in the retail and distribution sectors of the business. National GMB officer Roger Jenkins said: “We had a virtual meeting with union reps and there’s an awful lot of anger across the stores and a demand that our members react to this.”
Wilko seems set on a course of confrontation which will see its practices and policies subjected to extreme practical pressures.
