Amazon UK to offer parents term-time-only working amid union battle
Parents and grandparents who work in Amazon’s UK warehouses will in future be able to opt only to work in term time, amid a battle over pay and conditions with the GMB union, which is fighting the firm for recognition.
The US online retailer said the new contracts would guarantee those who care for school-age children, including guardians, time off during school holidays, including six weeks in the summer, plus two weeks at Easter and Christmas.
Amazon said it had trialled the new contracts at three sites, after worker feedback, and these were being phased in across all of its fulfilment centres, where employees store, pick and pack products. They will be rolled out to sorting centres and delivery hubs across the UK later this year.
The company said those on the new contract would be entitled to full-time benefits, and it hoped the move would encourage more people back to work.
It has also launched a flexible part-time contract, for a minimum of 80 hours a month, that allows employees to pick suitable shifts, whether part-day or full-day, during the daytime or night, and weekdays or weekends.
Amazon will hope the move can attract potential candidates looking for flexible employment, despite two recent rounds of job cuts that culled nearly 30,000 employees worldwide.
The offer of new contracts comes as Amazon is locked in a dispute with the GMB, after months of strikes at its Coventry warehouse.
GMB members at the huge Coventry centre, known as BHX4, have taken 16 days of strike action since January, in what was the first industrial action taken against Amazon in the UK.
They have been demanding a pay increase to £15 an hour, from £11, and have previously said they were frustrated by the company’s refusal to talk.
The GMB has said
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