Warehouses at war: Has Covid-19 transported industrial relations to the 1970s?

Attention switched from stores to distribution centres and the staff there replaced their shopfloor counterparts on the consumer frontline.

Even though, as Next chief executive Lord Wolfson was early to point out, demand was likely to be low for some non-essential products, retailers were desperate to take sales where they could online.

But the wider disruption brought by coronavirus was accompanied by unrest in many distribution centres as unions representing workers confronted management over health and safety measures in place during the pandemic.

Retailers ranging from Amazon, Asos and Boohoo to JD Sports and Marks & Spencer all found themselves in the line of fire.

To some it appeared like a return to the industrial relations of the 1970s, as the GMB union in particular launched ferocious PR attacks on alleged shortcomings.

For GMB, Asos became emblematic of all that was wrong. The union condemned the etailer in lurid terms, claiming workers at the Barnsley warehouse were “like rats” trapped in a “cradle of disease”.

Asos totally refuted the allegations. A spokesman told Retail Week in March: “They are false, do nothing more than serve to create panic and hysteria in an already uncertain time, and are part of a continuing campaign against us and the recognised union on site, Community.”

Concern about warehouse health and safety prompted the surprise closure of Next’s online business.

Briefly, it seemed likely that swathes of other retailers of non-essential goods might follow suit; although, with the exception of a few such as TK Maxx and River Island, they did not.

Next was able to reopen online. In a sign that not all retailer-union relationships are fractious, Next’s ecommerce relaunch was undertaken in consultation with retail union Usdaw, which worked alongside the fashion giant to put in place and implement the measures that enabled online operations to be resumed safely.

Giving workers a voice

Unions such as Usdaw make no apologies for speaking up on behalf of their members, or for demanding closures when concerns are not met.

A fortnight ago, Usdaw criticised fashion etailer Boohoo for selling face masks as a “fashion item” and said it had “raised deep concerns about Boohoo staff at risk because of inadequate personal protective equipment and failures to reorganise working practices to ensure necessary social distancing”.

However, Usdaw and other unions including Community typically seek to work constructively with employers rather than adopt a confrontational stance.

Usdaw national officer Mark Todd, who handles the relationship with Next – the biggest agreement he is responsible for – tells Retail Week: “We have good relations with all the retailers where we have consensual agreements.

“The old-school view is that we’re at loggerheads but if a business isn’t doing well it affects the job security of our members”

Mark Todd, Usdaw

“We work on keeping good channels of communication, and good structures of meetings and reporting, on-site or in-store. We view our agreements as partnerships and work in that spirit.

“We give the shopfloor a voice and make sure policy and procedure are followed, but we appreciate businesses have to make decisions sometimes to keep in business. The old-school view is that we’re at loggerheads, but if a business isn’t doing well it affects the job security of our members.”

Next had constructive engagement and shut its online business to make changes to enable social distancing and mitigate the risks of infection, Todd believes. He says: “I worked closely with senior reps and the company to go through all the sites and ensure safety.

“I’ve just visited one of the sites and asked people how it was going. To a person, they said they felt safer – safer at work than going to the shops. We want businesses to do well and it’s all about being fair.”

In the end, it was a similar story in Asos’ warehouse. When the controversy was at its height, the Community union said that unless certain changes – mainly to do with safe switchovers between shifts – were made, the site should “cease operating”.

However, it also emphasised that it was “working with our members and the company for weeks to make improvements to the way the site operates” and on the assumption that if the necessary changes were made, the warehouse would stay open.

Navigating a new landscape

Warehouse concerns flared up in part because retailers, like other companies, found themselves navigating a new landscape that nobody had experienced before.

As with stores that were allowed to remain open, there was not wholesale change overnight.

The response to the health emergency was often phased as new concerns and ways of dealing with them were identified. Social distancing may be initiated in warehouses, for instance, but the lack of similar measures on the buses transporting staff to work might quickly become evident as a new worry – which, when addressed, might be replaced by yet another.

The situation was not helped by lack of understanding of the emergency rules imposed by the government on ‘non-essential’ retail.

Although store closures were enforced on retailers selling non-essential products, the government never intended online operations of any kind to shut down, regardless of how important the items sold were for everyday life. However, some workers were understandably confused.

Todd says: “Initially, I think the government guidelines weren’t clear enough.” On one hand, people were being asked to stay at home and on the other online retail was encouraged.

Warehouse workers asked themselves which advice should be adhered to, Todd says. “It was a barrier for members to get over.”

The government addressed the gap in understanding last month when business secretary Alok Sharma wrote an open letter to the retail industry in which he paid tribute to warehouse workers as well as those in shops.

He specifically highlighted the importance of “items ordered online”, such as those enabling home working and entertainment products.

Sharma said: “Whether you’re working in a shop, large or small, or in a distribution centre or supply chain supporting retailers operating online, I would like to convey my heartfelt and personal thanks for everything that you are doing to support our joint national effort.”

The intervention made clear that warehouses should remain open and, following the problems early on in the coronavirus outbreak, there seem to have been fewer issues reported.

Working with unions

But whether during the crisis or in normal times, Neil Ashworth, chair of fulfilment specialist Salazar and a former Tesco supply chain director and Yodel executive, maintains that retailers can and should work cooperatively with unions.

He says: “Things blow up when there are causes for concern, and in the crisis it’s there. If people don’t feel they’re being listened to, they’re going to go to their union.”

And despite the recent flare-ups and confrontational stances, Ashworth insists that the retailer-union relationship has moved on since the 1970s and unions now seek to work in partnership “rather than in an adversarial way”.

He points to Tesco’s partnership with Usdaw, the biggest union agreement in UK retail, and says: “There are others like that, where there’s a continual dialogue about organisational strategy and where it’s heading.”

A personal relationship with relevant trade union officials – not necessarily shop stewards – is the essential foundation stone for a fruitful relationship, Ashworth advises.

Such relationships are built “like a marriage”, demanding time and effort so that they last through any stormy moments.

“To begin with, it’s done face to face and without an agenda – ‘hello, this is me, who are you?’ – and then built upon in the same way as any business relationship through calls, emails and meetings,” says Ashworth.

“It’s about regular dialogue, so you have a degree of trust, and then there’s an element of resilience when things don’t go smoothly. Then you can start to predict how they’ll react.”

“A good trade union official can be worth their weight in gold, for the organisation and the people they represent”

Neil Ashworth, Salazar

Once that relationship is established, it allows “sensible, balanced and progressive conversations” founded upon confidentiality. Ashworth explains: “That allows you to talk about where the business needs to go and understand what the challenges might be before you put the strategy in place. The union can help inform that.

He was able to do that when Tesco Direct was being built, for instance, and address fears that the growth of online would hit the bricks-and-mortar business and its jobs. “We spent quite a bit of time talking to Usdaw and getting their take,” he recalls.

Such discussions are important because otherwise there can be a “vacuum, and people fill it and make decisions based on the status quo rather than what might be”.

Warehouses have their own unique challenges as staff may be working ‘for’ a retailer, but the premises might be run by a logistics partner such as DHL, which manages an M&S warehouse in Swindon that was criticised by the GMB, or XPO, which is in charge of Asos’ Barnsley distribution centre.

That means that workers can sometimes feel like second-class citizens. For example, they may not be eligible for benefits enjoyed by their directly employed peers, such as bonuses and staff discounts.

Usdaw’s Todd says he is working for warehouse staff to be recognised as working for the retailer, and has had “some success”, but there is a long way to go.

Ashworth argues that strong relations with unions should be encouraged and says: “A good trade union official can be worth their weight in gold, for the organisation and the people they represent.”

While the coronavirus pandemic has brought some tensions to the fore, differences between retailers and warehouse unions do not represent a return to the strife of the 1970s, but further ground on which to build.