The Unite union announced on Friday June 7 that through negotiations with the logistics organization Wincanton they secured a 19% pay rise to workers in the Argos warehouse in Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK. Argos Ltd is a British catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a subsidiary of Sainsbury’s- the third largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
In the warehouse in Kettering, there existed a significant non parity in wages between the workers who got shifted to the warehouse in 2017 and the workers who were there before. According to reports, with the new deal, the lower paid workers’ will get a 19 per cent increase by 2022. It means that a typical worker’s pay, who was on the lower rate, will increase from £10.00 an hour to £11.88 an hour. The remaining workers also received a payment worth 6%.
Unite regional officer Mick Orpin said: “The union has now negotiated parity for the workforce by securing a 19 per cent pay increase for the lower paid workers. The remaining workers also received a payment worth 6% and they overwhelmingly supported the deal. It now means the workers are strong, organized and united thanks to their union Unite”.
“This was a complex set of negotiations but the deal delivers for the entire workforce. The work of Unite representatives demonstrates the value of having a strong recognized trade union at a time when insecure work is on the rise.”
Earlier in May 2019, Unite also secured a 3% pay rise for the thousands of workers in the Anglian Water, a water company that operates in the east of England.
