Business as usual at The Warehouse

Media release
3 December 2009

Business as usual at The Warehouse

The Warehouse remains committed to pursuing negotiation processes with the National Distribution Union (NDU) after union members threatened strike action over a proposed employment agreement.

Despite numbers of The Warehouse staff attending stop work meetings today, The Warehouse’s General Manager of Human Resources, Paul Walsh, was quick to confirm this is not a case of staff taking formal strike action.

Speaking from The Warehouse’s head office, Walsh said, “These team members are not on strike. They are attending legal stop work meetings, in most cases for two hours, and returning to work immediately afterwards.”

He went on to observe that this activity is affecting a maximum of one in four team members and it’s very much business as usual, with The Warehouse staff offering its usual great service at all 86 stores across New Zealand.

The NDU has claimed that The Warehouse is threatening non-union members with a non-payment of bonus because of actions by union members. Commenting on this allegation, Walsh says, The Warehouse remains focused on delivering benefits to all its team members.

“Our store bonuses are based on achieving sales and customer satisfaction targets. We feel the NDU has taken out of context part of a letter sent to non-NDU team members, commenting on how the two months prior to Christmas are critical to profitability.

“As opposed to any form of threat, it is a simple reality that if we do not achieve our targets during this critical trading period, it will almost inevitably affect potential bonus payments for all 8,000 team members.

“As a business, we are working to the best of our ability to ensure customer satisfaction is not compromised should industrial action take place.”

ENDS