News

Stobart Group is in the process of finding out whether its 130 Tesco drivers, who transferred over earlier this year from the supermarket, have chosen to stay on board or opt for redundancy.

Following a 90-day consultation period between the Unite union and company bosses, which commenced in June, the drivers at the regional distribution centre (RDC) in Middlewich, Cheshire, had until Friday 3 October to choose  to continue their employment with Stobart or take a redundancy package transferred under the TUPE agreement from Tesco.

Lawrence Chapple-Gill, Unite North-West regional officer, says the "vast majority" of union members at the depot voted in favour of the packages. He adds: "Those who make the initial decision to stay will have the right to try the job under the new terms on a trial basis. If they decide it's not for them, they can revert to taking redundancy."

However, a former Tesco driver at Middlewich, who does not wish to be named, believes "90% of the drivers will take redundancy" because they "do not want to work for Stobart".  He tells MT: "They want a life, not 70 hours a week to earn the same as 40 hours on their old contract with Tesco."

Julie Gaskell, Stobart Group head of communications, says: "We've worked closely with the union and feel we've achieved the best possible outcome. "We hope that, given the choice, our drivers will continue  to work for us under the new terms and conditions."

The discord arose shortly after Stobart took over the running of the RDC in February, when the haulage giant concluded that annualised hours worked by the Tesco drivers was "hampering efficiency", and that peak days were "not adequately resourced" (MT 3 July).

As MT went to press, Gaskell said that Stobart's HR department was still wading through the decisions from drivers, but anticipated they would know the outcome early next week.