DHL staff to strike in North Lanarkshire over pay

DHL has said a 'generous offer' has been made to staff at its Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire depot who have voted for strike action.

Union Unite Scotland said that over 350 warehousing and logistics employees at DHL’s Westfield site in the area rejected DHL's offer of a 2% annual increase, to run over two years. Furthermore, it said  over 90% of ballot papers returned were  in favour of strike action.

However, a DHL Supply Chain spokeswoman said: “DHL believes its offer to be generous in the current economic climate and is disappointed that staff at Westfield have voted in favour of industrial action.

“We have offered Unite a date for a follow up meeting and look forward to reaching a satisfactory outcome for both sides at the earliest opportunity.”

Unite Scotland said its members had become increasingly concerned about the future of the Westfield site after Marks & Spencer announced changes to its distribution network which would have an impact on operations at DHL.

Unite regional industrial officer, Tony Devlin, said: “We’ve got to the point where the situation is untenable. This workforce readily accepted a global pay freeze in 2008 and has had to contend with a significant spate of redundancies in the last two years – their commitment to DHL and M&S is unquestionable.

“We’ve accepted the cuts and made proposals for the diversification of the business operation after the M&S announcement but have been continuously kept in the dark by DHL and M&S. The recent pay offer was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“The workers have said ‘enough is enough’ and our position is clear on what it will take to resolve this dispute: a better pay offer and clarity on the future of Cumbernauld from DHL and M&S senior management.”

A schedule for strike action is yet to be announced.