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Firms cutting back further as the recession drags on
Page 10
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CM COVER STORY
SOME OF the transport industry's biggest operators are being forced to carry on with redundancy programmes and reductions in staff working hours as the recession continues.
Norbert Dentressangle (ND) and DHL Supply Chain are both in negotiations with the union Unite as they attempt to implement measures to cut costs in their respective UK operations.
Last week. lWO DIAL sites in Birmingham came under scrutiny. On 26 June. the firm closed its Lanclor Street site in the east of the city, resulting in 59 job losses and 50 employees being redeployed across the network, while at its site on Lode Lane, near the M42, a change in shifts has been proposed from 5 July.
A DHL spokesman says:"We are in talks, with Unite's regional industrial organiser to negotiate a shift pattern that will he agreeable to management and DHL staff; it
is based on a Sunday-to-Thursday shift pattern. There has, unfortunately, been a breakdown in communication between management and employees on this occasion."
Unite says staff at DHL are not content with a shift from the Monday-to-Friday working week, and that strike action is a possibility.
Meanwhile, following the rejection by ND UK Transport Services employees of a pay and conditions package for 2009-2010 (CM 24 June), staff were set to be represented by Unite at an Acas meeting as CM went to press A Unite spokesman says the union is representing upwards of 640 members: "We have rejected proposals for reducing a 48-hour week to 40. We have not opposed a pay freeze, but we will keep it under constant review."
As CM went to press, ND was unavailable for comment.
In April, DHL also confirmed it had implemented a pay freeze across the board.