The GMB union, which represents logistics workers, has slammed XPO Logistics and Sports Direct for announcing the closure of a depot in Milton Keynes, dedicated to handling goods for UK retailer House of Fraser, with the loss of more than 300 jobs.
The union said it had been informed that the facility will be shuttered on November 27. The future of another XPO depot dedicated to the department store chain, in Wellingborough, which also employs around 300 staff, remains uncertain.
A total of 627 staff at the Milton Keynes and Wellingborough depots were put on a 45-day redundancy consultation period on August 17, the GMB said.
US-based XPO is reportedly owed more than £30 million by the struggling retailer, whose new owner Sports Direct has indicated that it would not pay debts incurred prior to the takeover. The logistics company responded by stopping the acceptance of goods and processing deliveries for House of Fraser.
“GMB is disappointed by the fact that XPO and Sports Direct are clearly only interested in the stock in the warehouse. They couldn’t care less about our members or their livelihoods,” said GMB organiser, Alan Costello. “This whole stand off – during which our members have been left in limbo – has been about commodities, not people.”
No one at XPO or Sports Direct was immediately available to comment when contacted by CEP-Research.
In a separate issue, the GMB has warned that next-day deliveries could be under threat in the UK due to warehouse labour shortages after Brexit.
The union said new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that one-third of warehousing and storage workers are EU nationals.
“As Brexit approaches it is becoming increasingly clear that many of the comforts we take for granted, such as next-day-deliveries, could become a thing of a past,” noted GMB general secretary, Tim Roache.
“Too many warehousing operations in the UK have been built on the exploitation of both EU and UK nationals, and it is clear that a low wage, insecure economy is a big contributing factor as to why we're leaving the EU in the first place.”
He said that without a plan to improve the quality of employment in sectors impacted by Brexit, such as warehousing, it was difficult to see how they could function. “We need a proper plan of action and we need it now.”
