News

Home Delivery Network (HDNL) is shedding 10% of its workforce after a major restructuring.

The 669 jobs under threat include nearly 450 full and part-time drivers out of a total workforce of 7,000. Depots throughout the country will be affected.

The Transport and General Workers Union, which is in talks with HDNL during the consultation process, says the job losses are in part down to a drop in catalogue work. A HDNL spokesman  confirms the restructure is driven by changes in the business due to more customers ordering over the internet rather than from catalogues.

The TGWU says it had expected the job losses for some time. It is understood that union officers were surprised there were not extensive job losses when HDNL was created out of a merger of Business Express and the Reality Group in 2005.

Julia Long, TGWU national secretary for transport, says: "The news is obviously disappointing but we have to deal with a difficult situation. We will be using the consultation process with our members and the company to see what opportunities there are for redeployment as well as doing our best to ensure that none of the redundancies are compulsory."

The company says although some jobs will be lost in the short term, the change in business brought by the internet could mean more drivers are needed in some depots. "The internet is changing our customer base, so we need to adapt to that," says  the spokesman.

The drivers affected include 262 full time and 180 temporary, with managers, sorters and general workers in the depot among others with jobs under threat.