// Morrisons staff given chance to apply for voluntary redundancy at a North Staffordshire store
// The branch is preparing to axe its home delivery service
// Morrisons is in consultation with Usdaw after axing the pick-from-store online home delivery service
Dozens of Morrisons staff have been given the option to apply for voluntary redundancy at a North Staffordshire store as the branch prepares to axe its home delivery service.
Morrisons is in consultation with union Usdaw after removing the pick-from-store online home delivery service from its Leek branch and offering voluntary redundancies to all hourly-paid staff.
The Leek branch is one of 50 affected stores across the UK, and will leave 150 remaining stores and warehouses still offering the home delivery service.
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The branch has around 200 employees, with most of them hourly-paid.
Morrisons said: “At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic we rapidly grew our store home delivery service to serve the many customers who had moved from shopping in store to online.
“As we enter this next phase of the pandemic and with many restrictions now eased, we must now adapt and make some changes to the size of our online operation to meet our customer demands.
“From October, we plan to close online home delivery in a number of stores. We will continue to maintain the same service levels, including the number of customers and postcodes we deliver to, through our existing home delivery stores as well as our fulfillment centres.
“All colleagues affected by these proposed changes will be given the opportunity to either move into an alternative role within our business or apply for voluntary redundancy.
“As part of this consultation process we will be offering all hourly-paid colleagues within affected stores the opportunity to also apply for voluntary redundancy. We are consulting closely with Usdaw on all proposed changes.”
Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said: “As we approach our busiest time of the year, I’m confident that the team will continue to rise to all challenges and keep up all the good work to improve the shopping trip for customers.”
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