{"id":15874,"date":"2018-08-06T16:20:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T15:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15874"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:19","slug":"sainsburys-talks-sign-or-be-sacked-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15874","title":{"rendered":"‘Sign or be sacked’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite is due to hold talks with Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses on Wednesday (August 8) over a collective grievance by the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members in the long-running \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sign or be sacked\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contracts row affecting 123,000 workers.<\/p>\n

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Unite is taking legal steps to protect its 11,000 members who have been told by Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s they have to sign the new contracts by 23 September \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or face the sack.<\/p>\n

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Unite said the dispute stems from the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal to increase pay to \u00c2\u01419.20 an hour for workers at Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1,400 stores from September, which would be eroded by \u00e2\u20ac\u0098strings\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 such as removing premium pay for Sunday working. The normal current rate is \u00c2\u01418.00 an hour.<\/p>\n

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Unite has also lodged a protective award with an employment tribunal in relation to the consultation process.<\/p>\n

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Unite has contacted its members with a questionnaire about equal pay and possible age discrimination with the new contract. The questionnaire should be completed by 31 August.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is an issue of fairness which puts Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with its so-called progressive employment practices under the media spotlight,” said Unite national officer for the food industry Joe Clarke.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe accept that the new contracts may be an improvement for a large number of Sainsbury’s employees; however, many of the longest serving and older staff may be worse off \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the position we are fighting to avoid.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany of our members have lodged individual grievances about their pay and conditions under the new contract which have now been rolled into a collective grievance and will be the subject of Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talks,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s has taken a much harder line than its retail rival Asda which has applied its new contract so individuals, who do not wish to sign it, can stay on their existing terms without the draconian threat of the sack.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSainsbury’s is looking to impose this \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sack or sign\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contract which, in essence, is robbing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Peter to pay Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is because it is a self-financing pay deal, with the loss of overtime, Sunday premium pay and breaks, as well as the unethical removal of medical severance for sick workers. Also, there will be no further increase in salary until 2020.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe headline figure of \u00c2\u01419.20 per hour looks attractive, but, like the tip of an iceberg, there are many other issues lurking below the surface.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt should also be noted that Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boasts it is signed up to the The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). However, its current stance contravenes section 2 of the ETI code on non-adherence which relates to not granting Unite collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s has manufactured a crisis of its own making. Even at this eleventh hour, we are asking Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to draw back and avoid unnecessary confrontation, which is the last thing it should want in these very competitive times for the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supermarkets.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite is due to hold talks with Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses on Wednesday (August 8) over a collective grievance by the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members in the long-running \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sign or be sacked\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contracts row affecting 123,000 workers.   Unite is taking legal steps to protect its 11,000 members who have been told by Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s they have to sign the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[489,505],"wps_subtitle":"Unite to hold talks with Sainsbury\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over contract row","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25994,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15874\/revisions\/25994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}