Unite members working for DHL at Jaguar Land Rover are balloting for strike action following the company’s failure to pay workers the wages owed to them. This is despite DHL making €1.3bn profit in the first six months of 2021!
Birmingham Socialist Party spoke to a shop steward at one of the sites affected:
“There were wildcat strikes at Solihull today (10th August) and yesterday, seeing 20+ people walk off the job following the company’s pay errors. The way the company has handled take backs from flexible furlough without consultation has led to some people having £800+ removed from their wages in one go, just before the summer (shutdown) holiday.
We were due to sit down and meet about 2020 pay today for 2000+ hourly paid employees across the DHL/JLR contract.
The meeting was postponed because of the action trackside that was taken by employees themselves individually. Some of them are highly stressed and in severe financial difficulty after the deductions. I know of one individual who can’t even afford to put fuel in his car to get into work.
Who can blame them for taking action - it seems to be the only thing the company understand. The concern from our National Committee is now that the company show more of a desire to investigate the track stoppages and cars lost than to sort out its incompetent wages department.”