Argos employees from across the UK are to protest outside its new owner Sainsbury’s’ HQ next week, after the company failed to guarantee their futures within the business.

More than 400 employees are due to be transferred to Wincanton next month, and Unite said it is concerned for its members’ futures with Argos across the whole of the UK after the company failed to guarantee it could safeguard workers’ terms and conditions.

The union suggested the move could be the “thin edge of the wedge” and that Sainsbury’s may be working towards a “serious cost-cutting” agenda.

Representatives from Argos’s six UK distribution sites will stage a lobby outside Sainsbury’s HQ in Holborn on Monday (27 February).

Unite said it was also considering an industrial action ballot.

The 400 workers in Lutterworth are due to be transferred to a Wincanton site 25 miles away in Kettering on 13 March.

Unite national officer for road transport and retail distribution Matt Draper said: “All Argos sites, including Magna Park, have asked the company for guarantees about terms and conditions going forward and the ability to take voluntary redundancy, if a site moves and a member cannot or does not want to transfer.

“The management has refused to give these reasonable guarantees –hence the protest on Monday. We are also looking at the possibility of an industrial action ballot.

“Argos has refused to allow an independent company to analyse the business case, which has further fuelled suspicions about the company’s intentions.

"We will strongly oppose any attempt at ‘a race to the bottom’ when it comes to pay and conditions.”

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