Waitrose has been accused of lowering redundancy payouts for warehouse workers already at risk of losing their jobs.
The supermarket has come under fire for offering affected staff a reduced redundancy package after proposing a higher payout back in January.
Earlier this year, John Lewis told workers it planned to halve redundancy payouts, which made it cheaper for bosses to lay off staff.
Despite this, the supermarket’s workers have now claimed a review into the anticipated closure of an Enfield warehouse, dubbed “Project Hazel,” had begun before changes to its redundancy package were implemented.
Under the proposal, departing staff members will only be paid one week’s pay per year of service, on top of statutory payouts received from the government.
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A group of warehouse workers put forward a counter proposal. They said: “Considering Project Hazel was up and running long before the changes in the redundancy package were discussed, the earlier redundancy package should be the package used when dealing with affected partners.”
However, the counter proposal was rejected by John Lewis Partnership.
The company said the closure was only formally settled on 6 March, “which was after the announcement of the new redundancy pay terms”.
In April, the partnership revealed hundreds of customer service workers on the Waitrose account at a key outsourcer that previously faced redundancy were no longer at risk.
It was previously reported to be planning to reduce the number of staff it employed at customer service provider Foundever as it looked to streamline costs.
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