// Amazon is set to offer warehouse staff the option to work in term-time only
// The move follows Amazon’s dispute with the GMB, after months of strikes at its Coventry warehouse
Amazon’s UK business will offer parents, grandparents or guardians working in its warehouses the option to work only in term time.
The new contracts would guarantee those who care for school-age children, including guardians, six weeks of holiday in the summer and two weeks over the Easter and Christmas breaks.
Employees will be entitled to all full-time benefits.
Amazon regional operations director Neil Travis said: “We spent a lot of time listening to our employees and one of the things that we were learning is that they really wanted more flexible opportunities.”
The contracts had been trialled at three sites and phased in across all of Amazon’s fulfilment centres, where employees store, pick and pack products. Further roll-out will happen in sorting centres and delivery hubs across the UK this year.
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Amazon hopes the move will encourage more people back to work. The online giant had also recently launched a new part-time contract with a flexible shifts option, hoping to attract potential candidates looking for flexible employment.
The moves comes amid Amazon’s dispute with the GMB union as they demand a pay increase to £15 an hour.
GMB members have taken 16 days of strikes at the Amazon’s Coventry depot, which saw as many as 700 workers down tools in the UK’s first-ever strike at an Amazon fulfilment centre.
Amazon later faced another round of strikes in the UK as over 150 workers at the online giant‘s Rugeley and Mansfield overwhelmingly backed strikes in a consultative ballot.
Amanda Gearing, a senior organiser at the GMB, said: “It is no surprise that Amazon have discovered flexible working offers after Coventry workers have found their voice and their strength. It’s no coincidence that 16 days of strike action have come before this offer.”
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