Argos strike could disrupt deliveries

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 17, 2017

Earlier this month Sainsbury’s hailed the progress of its Argos acquisition for boosting its full-year results but the current period could see it stumbling as the retailer faces the prospect of a two-week strike by warehouse staff. The strike will hit five logistics centres and could make it hard for customers to get hold of the gods they order.

The 1,400 workers are in dispute over job security and terms and conditions at centres in Basildon, Bridgwater, Burton-on-Trent, Heywood and Lutterworth and walked out Wednesday morning. They said they fear that a process of contracting out jobs to alternative employers would jeopardise their jobs and damage working conditions.

Argos had failed in a court bid to get the strike declared illegal after recent conciliation talks ended without a solution.

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But while the Unite union that is representing the workers said there could be major disruption to movement of inventory, Argos said in a statement that "we can reassure customers that we have strong contingencies in place and their orders and deliveries will not be affected.”

The company said it will continue legal action and that it had lost the court case on a technicality, although it did not directly address Unite’s accusations.

Argos is one of the UK’s biggest retailers and has evolved its catalogue model to become of the biggest omnichannel players in Britain for interiors products, sports goods, clothing, technology, jewellery and watches, health and beauty, and kids’ products.