Smith's staff to lose pay by Juliet Parish • Forty
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drivers at WH Smith News' magazine and newspaper distribution depot in Peckham, south-east London expect to be around £200 a month worse off when they move to a new site.
Next week's transfer to a £1m purpose-built depot in Croydon, Surrey will reduce overtime, because it is in the centre of the delivery area.
As an alternative to the reduced overtime the company offered voluntary redundancy, but only a handful of drivers opted for it. The drivers have also been told they will only be paid for the time they work and not, as previously, for the time the job is expected to take. They expect to get little more than their basic salary of £17,500 for a 35-hour week of night and weekend work.
At Peckham some drivers earned up to £21,000 a year with overtime, but this figure is now unattainable says a spokesman from the Graphical Paper and Media Union (formerly SOGAT). "It's a completely new ball game," he says. "The seniority list has gone, so drivers who have been working for the firm for 20 years no longer get the pick of the rounds, and the working times have changed so that there are different instead of regular starting times."
The drivers have decided not to take industrial action: a onenight work-to-rule last November led to publishers threatening to use another distributor. They are also aware of the demand for their jobs. An advert for four drivers at Croydon attracted 300 applications.