Workplace Report October 2019

Bargaining news

Matalan deal agreed


A long-running strike at fashion and homeware retailer Matalan was called off after members of the GMB general union accepted an improved deal.


More than 500 workers at Matalan’s Northern Distribution Centre, based in Knowsley, Merseyside, had been on strike after management made a pay offer which amounted to a real-terms pay cut.


The final deal is complex, said the GMB, and varies across the shifts, but the vast majority of GMB members receive a 1.7% mandatory minimum wage uplift with an additional negotiated 2.9% increase added on top.


The deal includes an assurance that future pay deals will always be backdated to the pay anniversary date — one of the central issues of the strike.


https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/matalan-strike-called-members-accept-new-pay-offer