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Usdaw urges Argos to withdraw their 'fire and rehire' threat to hundreds of back office staff who face losing thousands

Date: 25 May 2021 Retail trade union Usdaw is urging Argos to not use ‘fire and rehire’ tactics to force staff to sign up to a new contract that could result in the loss of thousands of pounds because of changes to pension contributions, holiday entitlements and travel allowances.
‘Fire and rehire’ is a controversial process where employers dismiss employees before re-engaging them immediately on less favourable terms and conditions, often affecting pay, benefits and working hours.
 
Dave Gill - Usdaw National Officer says: “Fire and re-hire tactics, to enforce contractual changes by sacking and then rehiring staff, is legally controversial and morally bankrupt. Disgracefully, across the UK, we’ve seen a growing number of businesses using the uncertainty of job security in the pandemic to manipulate workers into taking worse terms, simply because they are scared of losing their jobs.
 
“It is long overdue that the Government outlawed this practice and we were deeply disappointed that there was no employment bill in the Queen’s Speech to tackle this and other injustices. The Prime Minster has called the practice ‘unacceptable’, but those words are meaningless without action.
 
“In the absence of legal restraints on employers, preventing them from using ‘fire and rehire’, we are urging Argos to remove this threat from their staff.”
 
Usdaw is challenging ‘fire and rehire’ at Tesco, through the High Court, having won a temporary interdict in the Scottish Court. The union is also balloting members at BCM Fareva on industrial action, about their pre-emptive threat to ‘fire and rehire’ staff. Many other trade unions are engaged in ‘fire and rehire’ disputes.
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion

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The official website of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers