Sir Stephen Tindall signed a letter to governments, asking them to tax millionaires more. His timing in signing that letter could not have been worse. Now everyone that knows about it will call him out for the hypocrite that he is, asking to be taxed more while workers in his own organisation are relegated to the scrapheap of insignificance. The only word I can think of to describe Sir Stephen after this is… pathetic.
The Warehouse is using Covid-19 to justify decisions that will leave hundreds of workers without jobs, and thousands more with significant reductions to their incomes, First Union general secretary Dennis Maga says.
Staff at The Warehouse went into meetings on Monday morning as part of the retail giant’s restructuring process.
It is understood they were told that, across the board, the number of staff hours would be reduced and staff would no longer specialise in categories in the store. The company plans to eliminate 782 roles, plus 137 through store closures. There will also be job cuts at head office.
Now this is interesting. The article strongly implies that COVID is being used as an excuse by The Warehouse, meaning that sales are not down significantly because of the virus. Like most other businesses, they were closed during lockdown, of course, but most have enjoyed a significant spike in sales since reopening. Has The Warehouse not enjoyed a similar spike, or is this, as the article suggests, just an excuse to get rid of workers and close stores?
The Warehouse Group had proposed six store closures on top of three already confirmed, which could have resulted in 1080 job losses. It is understood it has outlined plans to close four on Monday, in addition to previously announced closures, including Birkenhead, where 40 jobs are set to go.
I do wonder if their business model is somewhat outdated. It is interesting that of the large retail chains, it is The Warehouse and also Bunnings that seem to be most affected. Strangely, they are 2 chain stores that, these days, I mostly try to avoid. Maybe I am not alone. Mitre 10 is so much better than Bunnings, even if Bunnings’ prices are generally lower, but their overstuffed warehouse approach and staff who know nothing do not make it a satisfying shopping experience. The Warehouse is not much better, packed full of cheap rubbish made in China, but I had not imagined that this would worry too many people for whom low prices are the most important thing.
But maybe I am wrong about that.
“The restructure includes sweeping reductions of hours across the country, that are left to individual store managers to find and cut, as well as hundreds of job losses and the closure of physical stores.”
Maga said First Union delegates would continue to engage with The Warehouse executives and challenge the business model as it was implemented around the country. He said workers had welcomed the co-operation between the company and the union during the consultation process but warned that further challenges lay ahead.
“This can’t be the standard we accept as a country from big businesses during Covid, or our recovery and resilience as a nation is in jeopardy,” he said.
Unfortunately, any business is entitled to restructure as it sees fit, but this does seem rather harsh at a time when low paid workers will not find it easy to get other jobs. It seems particularly hard when retail seems to be enjoying reasonably good times, as people have money to spend and cannot travel overseas.
The company had taken $68 million in wage subsidy payments offered by the Government before announcing the planned job losses, angering Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month.
This is probably the start of a trend. As the wage subsidy runs out (and the second tranche will start to run out in early August), we will see more and more businesses laying off staff. Unless trading has recovered to more or less normal by then, there will be a lot of job losses coming up over the next couple of months.
Just in time for the election. Jacinda couldn’t have timed it all better for her image of ‘kindness’ if she tried. As for Sir Stephen, maybe he could put some of his surplus millions to good use by setting up a trust fund for some of the workers in the organisation that he founded that are about to find themselves on the scrapheap. He won’t though. Much better to display his philanthropy by pretending he wants to pay more tax. If he really wants to do that, there is nothing stopping him.
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