NFC opts for salary
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• NFC Contract Distribution, the retail distribution division of the National Freight Consortium, is giving its new contract staff salary status instead of traditional hourly paid terms and conditions.
The scheme, already introduced on contracts with Whitbread, Batchelors and Homebase, means that drivers, clerks and warehouse workers will have the same pay structure, with a fixed salary but no overtime. The deals have been negotiated with the unions and now NFC Distribution plans to extend the scheme throughout the company.
The arrangement will make its 1,600 employees "flexible team workers" who have the security of a fixed salary, making it easier to obtain mortages, says managing director Mark Bedeman.
A quarter of NFC Contract Distribution's employees are salaried at present, and discusion are taking place at a further two depots. Staff at Peterborough, with Batchelors, and Northampton, with Sainsbury's Hornebase are already on the single-status system. Geoff Mee, NFC Contract Distribution pesonnel director, believes that the scheme develops a better atmosphere between employees and managers and removes any "them and us" feeling.