05 May 2009

WATERSTONE'S CUTS THREATEN 650 JOBS

Waterstone's could lose as many as 650 positions, following its move to a new distribution centre at Burton on Trent and a decision to use more part-time staff throughout the chain

Waterstone's sats it had made considerable efforts to minimise the effects of the changes and the final number of redundancies. Three hundred full-time staff will be hired by Unipart to work at Waterstone's new distribution hub at Burton-on-Trent, which will be fully operational from June.

Part-time roles have been given more weight in store rotas, with branches asked to operate on a 60/40 split between full-time and part-time staff. Footfall counters were placed in all stores to measure the peak times customers visited branches and rotas were changed accordingly.

Gerry Johnson, Waterstone's managing director dismissed suggestions that a greater reliance on part-time staff would lead to fewer experienced booksellers on the shop floor. He said: "There's absolutely no evidence of that. Being full-time or part-time does not change your passion and enthusiasm for books. It simply changes the number of hours you work in store. We have some absolutely brilliant full-timers and some absolutely brilliant part-timers. What matters to us is the enthusiasm and passion for books and the service they can give to customers."