Anger over sick pay being slashed for Wilko staff

Melton's Wilko store in Nottingham Street EMN-210802-123623001

Wilko has confirmed that the town branch in Nottingham Street is one of its shops where a change has been made to working contracts.

Employees were previously entitled to up to four occasions of sickness a year on company sick pay before reverting to having the first three days of sick leave being unpaid.

But from the start of this month, if a Wilko staff member has a single day of sickness they will now have no further entitlement to company sick pay for the following 12 months.

The GMB union, which has members who work at the Melton store, said the move was a blow to staff with many of them on the minimum wage and now facing the prospect of having no income if they fall ill.

Roger Jenkins, national officer for the union, said: “Loyal Wilko workers have grafted throughout this pandemic - putting themselves and their families at risk to keep stores open.

“Along with other retail workers, they’ve had to deal with a lack of social distancing, increased threats and abuse from customers.

“Wilko should be rewarding their commitment - but instead they’ve threatened to slash their sickness benefit.

“Wilko should hang their heads in shame.

“GMB will not tolerate this abuse of keyworkers and has informed Wilko that if these draconian measures go ahead, they face a ballot for industrial action.”

It is understood that the changes have been made to employment contracts in a bid to cut down on staff absences across its stores and address a perceived abuse of the previous system for sickness pay by some employees in its various UK outlets.

Commenting on the changes, a Wilko spokesperson told the Melton Times: “In a constantly changing retailing market we’re continually looking at ways we can meet the hardware and household needs of families across the UK and we’re making an ongoing series of changes across areas of our business to make shopping with Wilko even better.

“As part of this, we’ve started talking to team members in some of our stores about proposed changes.

“This includes making sure we’ve the right team members in the right places at the right times serving customers when and where they want to shop with us.”