Ikea staff in Wednesbury are being offered pay cuts or redundancy in a huge shake-up of the furniture store’s UK branches.
Workers at the store in Axletree Way, which employs 500 people, are being asked to reapply for their old jobs and, in many cases, may be forced to accept less money.
The store says it is using “fewer layers of management” which means there will be 300 managers nationwide who will effectively be demoted.
In a statement, Ikea said: “We have decided to reorganise our store structure and become more customer focused using our resources differently. Our new structure will provide an opportunity for co-workers to take on more responsibility.
“This means out of our 9,000 co-workers around 300 managers will be affected. The 300 affected managers will be given the opportunity to apply for new positions within our upcoming new stores.”
Job cuts have not been ruled out, although affected staff may also apply for jobs on a higher grade if there is a vacancy. Many are also being given the option of voluntary redundancy.
A source at the Wednesbury branch said today that in most cases people were taking pay cuts of £2,000.
The source said: “For instance, customer service assistants have been re-titled as something else and given a different pay banding which, in most cases, is lower.
“They are making it easier for you to go down. People have got bills to pay so they tend to go for the easy option and take the pay cut.”
The source claimed the store was cost-cutting.
Last year the Ikea group saw global profits increase by 17 per cent, while the number of international stores increased by 16.
Ikea has also been hit by increasing competition in the home furnishings and furniture market in recent years from the likes of House of Fraser and Debenhams.
By Rebecca Jones
11 Comments
“We have decided to reorganise our store structure and become more customer focused using our resources differently. Our new structure will provide an opportunity for co-workers to take on more responsibility…………..YEAH THAT’S JUST WHAT WE NEED, MORE WORK FOR US TO DO….IT’S A PITY OUR HOURLY WAGE WONT GO UP TO MATCH WITH THE EXTRA DUTIES THEY WANT US TO DO!!!
That’s terrible news. IKEA Wednesbury is (was) a great store.
‘Our new structure will provide an opportunity for co-workers to take on more responsibility.’
So they’ll be expecting their staff to work harder, knowing they’re getting less???
‘More customer focused’ ??
How much more customer focused can the staff get?
The fact that jobs are at risk is being lost with IKEA’s statement of being more customer focussed. The changes are destroying morale & putting hard working individuals under even more pressure..so much for the friendly, family oriented employer.
The fact of the matter is, UK profits are being used not just for UK expansion but also Asia expansion, in particular China. Every penny that can be squeezed from the UK is being channeled into areas where IKEA can see a massive return in its investment.
In these HARD times that We are experiancing We still turn in a profit…a profit that even major retail players would be proud of…& these players have shareholders to entertain..but not Us.
What more have We to do….My contract is 39 hours..I work, in a good week, a minimum of 50…how much more can Us co-workers do…??
I cant wait for ikea to close down, and good ridance to it,its a damn nuisance when you live local to it with all the congestion. never seen so many sad people on bank holiday monday waiting to get in the place.get a life and enjoy a day out elswhere.
Steve, nice of you to think of your voyage home after a day at work….(& there aint a cats chance in hell of IKEA closing)…could you just give some thought to people who have jobs & are fighting to keep them.
Just wonder Steve if you’d like to be treasurer of the IKEA Out of Work & Steves Happy Fund…???
MUPPET…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder if you would like to spend an hour in a traffic jam to go to the local shop? all because the road is congested,no you’de have different thoughts then of how bad it is.personally i dont care who works there or if it closes.come and live here and see the nightmare.
muppet !!!!.
And another thing Steve, if you live near Darlaston, I’m Sure you local shop would literally be on your doorstep!
Ive been working for IKEA for 5 years, enjoy my job and now it doesn’t exist. More than 30 people from Lakeside have already taken redundancy within just a month, and more are set to go. There will be no experience within the store. Whoever wrote up the new structure has obviously not worked in an IKEA store ever or for a very long time because they haven’t got a clue. They WILL suffer from this and their taking will go down dramatically. Big mistake IKEA.
Ikea done a big mistake, its not about the pay cut or redundancy, its all about how they treat there co-workers. Im not proud to work for ikea any more. Still work for ikea but no hopes about the company. If they don’t change the way they treat co-workers this company will be not there for a long time. At the moment we have average 80 mins waiting time in returns (customer service) don’t forget checkout q for at least 30-45 mins.
My name is Chris Rolfe. I currently work at an Ikea, however, not in the UK, but Phoenix, Arizona. I don’t know what the idea is here, but it seems that nearly every retail company seems to believe that having a bare amount of employees to complete tasks to the best of their ability will save them money. While this might save the company a decent sum of money initially, I would assume if Ikea just tried to hire enough employees to begin with, that they wouldn’t be exhausted every day trying to get their work done and we might actually be happy at our jobs!
I know, I know, it’s a ridiculous thought that obviously isn’t possible. Logical thought and retail do not go together. Everything must be made more complicated, ikea must have the bare minimum amount of employees, because one person attempting to work three different jobs is naturally an improvement on doing one job perfectly.
Honestly, I can’t really tell you if it’s mainly the store and managers in Phoenix that make daily life so difficult, or if it’s just how retail is. What I do know, if this is what Ikea or other retail has to offer me, I don’t see a reason to ever work retail again.
im a residant that lives right opposite the store, in wednesbury,i get cars parked outside my driveway, articulated lorries delivering at all hours, the store is nothing but a total nuisance for residents living by the poxy store good ridance.i hope evryone loses ther jobs there.