Argos staff are set to go out on strike

WORKERS at five logistics warehouses run by retailer Argos are going on strike later this month.

The dispute between the high street retailer and members of the Unite trade union centres on a national agreement covering redundancy and severance packages.

The four sites at Basildon in Essex, Bridgwater in Somerset, Castleford in West Yorkshire and Heywood in Greater Manchester are covered by the employer/ union national forum.

They will be joined on the strike by workers at Barton Business Park, in Burton-upon-Trent, who wish to be covered by the forum.

Unite is representing 1,100 affected workers with strike action due to run from August 15 to September 5.

The union said it was angry Argos had failed to give guarantees at all of its logistics sites that workers’ future terms and conditions would be safeguarded.

A ballot for industrial action was held after nearly 500 staff were transferred from Argos’ distribution hub in Lutterworth in the East Midlands to Wincanton Logistics in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

The union said it was worried about the intentions of Argos which was bought by supermarket giant Sainsbury’s last year for £1.4 billion.

Matt Draper, Unite’s national officer for logistics and retail distribution, said: “The transfer of the workers from Lutterworth to the Wincanton site, whether they wanted to go or not, led to this strike ballot.”

An Argos spokesman said: “We’re disappointed with the union’s actions which are based on unreasonable demands and are wholly unnecessary.

“Customers will not be impacted and should be reassured that full contingency plans are in place.”