Morrisons warehouse staff strike over pensions

Morrisons has warned of disruption as almost 1000 warehouse workers have walked out for the next three days in a row over pensions.

Workers at Morrisons distribution centres Gadbrook, Cheshire, and Wakefield, West Yorkshire have begun the first of two strikes.

The employees claim that Morrisons is attempting to cut their pensions contributions by around £10m per year.

They believe they will lose out by an average of £500 a year each as the supermarket chain plans to reduce how much it puts into their pension pot while forcing workers to pay more.

The supermarket has moved to a model where both employer and employee pay 4% into the pension pot rather than the previous 5% and 3% split.

The move, which began at the start of the financial year, will mainly affect warehouse stock controllers, cooks, canteen staff, and administrators at the depots, who earn between £12 and £13 an hour.

Unite union has accused the retailer of “planning to fleece workers” and claims it is attempting to get rid of a long service pay award.

It also claims Morrisons is increasing the speed at which goods are expected to be processed by staff.

Morrisons told The Guardian that the two affected warehouses would continue to operate at a reduced capacity.

The company told The Guardian: “We have put in place detailed contingency plans across the business and are confident that our customers, stores, suppliers and partners will not be significantly affected.”

A spokesperson added that the supermarket was “open to further dialogue with the union”.

They said: “We have made a number of new proposals to Unite, including a 9% pay award, a new service award scheme, and improvements to the planned future pension scheme changes. Disappointingly, Unite has chosen to reject these new proposals without putting them to its members, and instead are continuing with strike action at two out of our seven logistics sites, initially over three days.”