Bulletin No 19 November 2020

Member update following the DC Modernisation meeting between GMB and Wilko on Thursday

29th October, 2020

Consultation Update:

We are approaching the end of consultations and will now be concentrating on the detail of the final

proposals that will be putting to GMB members in a ballot.

Shifts:

There is currently a huge variety of contracts and working hours within the DC’s. With the proposed

introduction of unpaid breaks and a standardised shift system we are working to ensure there will be

contract options to enable people to protect their earnings and get a fair buy-out.

Contracts:

We will now be consulting on the detail of the new contracts that will form part of the proposals that will be

put to ballot. Once agreed this information will be made available to members to ensure you are fully

briefed prior to ballot.

Buy-Out:

As previously reported this has been the most challenging issue, the gap between what Wilko were

originally offering, and what we believed was an acceptable level was way apart. We now believe we are

reaching the best position we can through negotiation, and will have a fair offer to put to members the

detail of which will be available shortly.

GMB Members Ballot:

Once we are in a position where the proposals are finalised, the new contracts agreed, the DC2

redundancies finalised and all part-time and flexible workers at both DC1 and DC2 given options, we will

be in a position to ballot members.

Those eligible to be balloted will be GMB members who are staying with the business when the new

contracts are brought in.

Apologies for repeating ourselves, but it is important to enable us to run the ballot effectively that:

 All members ensure their membership details, particularly, e-mail address, mobile number

and home address are correct.

 Also, please check you have given us permission to contact you by e-mail, SMS or post. If

you have indicated you do not want to be contacted by any of these methods, this will need

to be changed, otherwise you will not receive information from us by that means.