Questions for distribution

[lackofinterest]

i've always said that the reason for the bad stacking of cages and hence loads of damages is the fault of managers and higher ups rewarding pickers for speed instead of accuracy

[lackofinterest]

in my opinion a lot of the pickers lack brain cells. eg stacking wine and canned beer on its side at the bottom of a heavy cage. an avalanche waiting to happen but higher ups obviously don't give a s**t as long as targets are met

[lackofinterest]

any training given to loaders on how to tighten the straps properly??? some of our deliveries are wedged against the door when it arrives and sent back as the driver can't get the door open?

[grim up north]

i've always said that the reason for the bad stacking of cages and hence loads of damages is the fault of managers and higher ups rewarding pickers for speed instead of accuracy

No reward, just constantly pressured(eventually sacked) to hit the target

in my opinion a lot of the pickers lack brain cells. eg stacking wine and canned beer on its side at the bottom of a heavy cage. an avalanche waiting to happen but higher ups obviously don't give a s**t as long as targets are met

As said many are restacked. I understand that some will make it to stores

any training given to loaders on how to tighten the straps properly??? some of our deliveries are wedged against the door when it arrives and sent back as the driver can't get the door open?

The straps are supposed to be tightened until taught, not overtightened. Also if there's rapid acceleration or hard braking, a 20t load will shift in the trailer no matter how tight the straps were. Also see my previous point about cramming more cages in than the trailer capacity. If the load is sent back to DC because you cant get the door open, do you think we have a yard full of trailers sat full of stock? Or they are opened with a bit of effort?

[ImBackBaby]

The straps are supposed to be tightened until taught, not overtightened. Also if there's rapid acceleration or hard braking, a 20t load will shift in the trailer no matter how tight the straps were. Also see my previous point about cramming more cages in than the trailer capacity. If the load is sent back to DC because you cant get the door open, do you think we have a yard full of trailers sat full of stock? Or they are opened with a bit of effort?
[/quote]
Us drivers would never drive quickly or harshly    We are the safest drivers on the road lol

In all seriousness thou, if the trailer cannot be open due to stock which is rare, normally its actually a fault with the door. Transport would normally organise your maintenance provider to go to the store to force it open. Anytime I have had an issue with a door, lack of equipment sympathy was all that was needed to get it to open.

Next thou raise it and ask "Why were the last 3 cages loaded not shrink wrapped that sit against the door to avoid stock falling." You will also start to see new Ambient Mesh guards coming online soon which is a big sheet that is clipped over the last row of cages and ratchet strapped tightened to stop stock from falling. The Shrink wrapping only applied to Packaged DC's as fresh is all 4 side cages.

[Last hurrah]

any training given to loaders on how to tighten the straps properly??? some of our deliveries are wedged against the door when it arrives and sent back as the driver can't get the door open?

Yes, better training than in most store roles to be fair. If people choose not to follow it, there's a driver feedback process which actually does get used in my site so we pick up coaching/conduct conversations with loaders.

If no one feeds it back though, no one at the DC knows about it.

[Nightproduceworker]

What's the buzz of the equal pay case going around in dc?

I know the job I do, I should get paid more than alot of my colleagues on the shop floor(nights). There's things I can achieve physically demanding that I'd say 90% couldn't.

I'd imagine the argument for this case being why does a checkout worker deserve the pay the same as someone in dc, or even nights.

Little too late, but tesco should of introduced skill and workload base pay years ago.

My opinion this day in age, tesco and other retailers will lose this battle.

[ImBackBaby]

What's the buzz of the equal pay case going around in dc?

I know the job I do, I should get paid more than alot of my colleagues on the shop floor(nights). There's things I can achieve physically demanding that I'd say 90% couldn't.

I'd imagine the argument for this case being why does a checkout worker deserve the pay the same as someone in dc, or even nights.

Little too late, but tesco should of introduced skill and workload base pay years ago.

My opinion this day in age, Tesco and other retailers will lose this battle.

If you look at the way Tesco has set up its distribution system, it is treated as a different company to Tesco Stores, That's why it is known as Tesco Distribution Ltd. It has its own accounts and tax returns. The DC operate on different T&C;s to stores as well. The same way Distribution workers are not affected by the Sunday Opt Clause under the law as it does not apply to them.

Personally I think Tesco will win there case on this one as the 2 are so far different its impossible to say "Yes, Checkout operator A is warranted the same rate as Warehouse picker working in +1 fridges all day" If they want to go down this road and want equal pay for all across all areas off the business, get your coat on and go start picking in that frozen chamber for 20mins at time.

[lucgeo]

Have you ever worked the shopfloor in a supermarket?

The cages you load have to be manually unloaded in a cold open air warehouse wearing thin customer facing uniforms ...same products different pay grade.

The only time coats are allowed is to work the freezers, rotating or finding shrink in some manky freezer coat, worn by all that stink to high heaven! These tasks can take well in excess of any 20 minute agreed time limit and you'd be laughed at if you requested your right to the time limit or a hot drink if exceeded! Same for requests that the freezer coats be laundered regularly as per the agreement!

Stores are now operated on a system where any colleague can work any department if able...so old Doris from checkouts, if declared physically fit, would be required to go unload that same cage you loaded, or take that freezer cage into the freezers and split it!

Agree that the contracts are different, but they were agreed in the last century...probably at the same time big businesses and factories paid men more than women to do the same job!

No wonder WASPI women are fighting their corner, they've dealt with all this sort of unjust treatment, during their working lives.

[ImBackBaby]

Have you ever worked the shopfloor in a supermarket?

The cages you load have to be manually unloaded in a cold open air warehouse wearing thin customer facing uniforms ...same products different pay grade.

The only time coats are allowed is to work the freezers, rotating or finding shrink in some manky freezer coat, worn by all that stink to high heaven! These tasks can take well in excess of any 20 minute agreed time limit and you'd be laughed at if you requested your right to the time limit or a hot drink if exceeded! Same for requests that the freezer coats be laundered regularly as per the agreement!

Stores are now operated on a system where any colleague can work any department if able...so old Doris from checkouts, if declared physically fit, would be required to go unload that same cage you loaded, or take that freezer cage into the freezers and split it!

Agree that the contracts are different, but they were agreed in the last century...probably at the same time big businesses and factories paid men more than women to do the same job!

No wonder WASPI women are fighting their corner, they've dealt with all this sort of unjust treatment, during their working lives.

Well for a start, your last statement indicates that Tesco is paying women different to men in an hourly rate role, which is completely false, so that argument is out the window. Everyone is paid the same in store & depot. You are paid a rate relevant to your job role. And yes, I have worked in the stores, 15 years in the stores.

And from what I have witnessed there is a big difference between working in DC vs working in a store and the DC is much tougher environment to be as it is all performance based. Don't hit your performance figures, see you later.

As for the contracts, they have all changed and now anyone who is not on the 2022 contract with exception to drivers is being paid a severance pay and leaving the company. If you don't take the severance pay they are still gonna move you onto the new 2022 contract.

[lucgeo]

The last paragraph doesn't state anything of the sort! It's relative to the previous paragraph on unjust pay discrimination in the work sector during the early years of the WASPI women's employment. I'm not in the habit of making false statements!

The current case going through the courts is due to the prior pay differentials between DC's and stores in Tesco and Asda.

Indeed you make the comparison yourself on equal pay in that a checkout operator should not be paid the same rate as a picker, and I have made the point that each store colleague are now required to work any department including unloading cages and working in the freezers!

So if you worked in a store and then moved to a DC, was the higher hourly rate a factor?

[grim up north]

I was hoping this thread wouldn't turn in to this. I started it to give you store workers a chance to ask us DC staff why things aren't sometimes the level you'd expect. I'd say practically every staff member of tesco has been in a shop, but relatively few have been in a distribution centre

[ImBackBaby]

So if you worked in a store and then moved to a DC, was the higher hourly rate a factor?

None your dam business whether the pay was a factor on my choice to move from stores but if you must know, I moved because I got myself an HGV licence plain and simple and didn't want to deal with the public face to face anymore.

[fatlad]

So if you worked in a store and then moved to a DC, was the higher hourly rate a factor?

None your dam business whether the pay was a factor on my choice to move from stores but if you must know, I moved because I got myself an HGV licence plain and simple and didn't want to deal with the public face to face anymore.

wow you're nice

[ImBackBaby]

wow you're nice
[/quote]
I know, I realised I was a bit harsh in that response, apologises to the previous person.

[FarmerFred]

... The Shrink wrapping only applied to Packaged DC's as fresh is all 4 side cages.

If only it was... plenty of fresh goes out on 2 siders & there's been many a time where even trays have been picked up off the floor of a trailer.

As to tightening the straps... if the load shifts under acceleration then it's not been secured full stop - especially in a lame dog Tesco wagon, even a harsh deceleration should not cause appreciable movement. There's many issues with the strapping, but the biggest three are that defective and poor condition straps rarely get replaced, overwinding & foldovers blocking the reel up - rather than releasing an rewinding the loader just moves on. The final one is not hooking on far enough back - the point of the straps is to pull the load back into the previous row, if the ends of the strap aren't at least half a cage back when tightened then the forces are primarily pulling the sides of the trailer inwards rather pulling the cages towards the headboard. There are other issues such row levelling, propper use of the compartment bulkheads, only having three dollies per row on DTMD upper decks.... the list goes on.  The problem is that by the time the loaders are getting the hang of the job they are fed up and on their way out of the door.

[Last hurrah]

What's the buzz of the equal pay case going around in dc?

I know the job I do, I should get paid more than alot of my colleagues on the shop floor(nights). There's things I can achieve physically demanding that I'd say 90% couldn't.

I'd imagine the argument for this case being why does a checkout worker deserve the pay the same as someone in dc, or even nights.

Little too late, but tesco should of introduced skill and workload base pay years ago.

My opinion this day in age, tesco and other retailers will lose this battle.

A large amount of the basis of this equal pay claim is around gender equality - the argument being that since stores are majority female and DCs are majority male, it's sexual discrimination to pay differently. This will get thrown out straight away as there is clear evidence going back years and years of why there is a difference in pay.

Union membership in DCs allows for much better pay negotiations which means bigger pay rises. The retail membership is so low in comparison that they just don't have any real clout.

As to whether the jobs are different - I've also done both. I've worked nights on drinks, produce, and frozen (sometimes all in one night) and can honestly say that working in a DC is more physically demanding.

Working on the back door unloading a delivery in chilly temperature is not the same as 8 hours in +0.5. Filling two cages of bananas is not the same as picking 4 pallets of them. Looking for missing shrink in a freezer is absolutely not the same as picking in the high bay at Dav F.

My personal opinion, there's zero to this claim, and it's a law firm trying desperately to clutch at very faint straws.

[oldfashionedplayer]

It's not about physically demanding etc, it's whether the roles have the same similarities... So if the role requires you to move and stack cages in both store and DC then that would be looked at..

Are wagons loaded both sides? - if so how and with what equipment? Is the training the same or similar? Is the equipment similar?

It's like the machines, everytime it's "they are different" just slap a seat on it and your good to go... Its a different model sure, length maybe a little longer? But concept and purpose = same..

So there's plenty of grounds... I agree that the checkout vs DC wouldn't work though for women saying checkout workers do the same, I've worked checkout and that's far easier... But for shop floor, checkout, backdoor, stacking etc, similar / more = yes definitely.

[FarmerFred]

It's not so much about job similarity, but more "value to the company" - is stacking a cage in the DC as valuable to the company as serving a customer on the checkouts? This is why it's such a complicated matter & part of why it's taking so long.

[Sherwoodforest]

@last hurrah think its more down to handling stock is handling stock,you put it on a cage,we take it off,no difference in the motion or muscles used to complete that task

[Nightproduceworker]

Exactly that. We also work in cold warehouse, well some of us do. Produce. Problem I hear alot, oh I've done produce. Many times I've heard this, yet they probably come went on there for 1 shift or to help and works some dollies and cages. 13 years I've done it, no one lasts more than 6 years in the past due to the load. Plus extra like coleslaw, bread eggs. If tesco pay out equal pay for job value and similarities, I'm for it.

[Last hurrah]

@last hurrah think its more down to handling stock is handling stock,you put it on a cage,we take it off,no difference in the motion or muscles used to complete that task

I agree that handling stock is handling stock, but that's on a case by case basis. Picking pallets of a hundred cases of butter or fifty trays of potatoes or boxes of bananas is harder work than working cages of even the heaviest stock in store. Moving one box of bananas in +12 requires on slightly more work than doing so in a store. But the quantities involved are drastically different.

I'm not saying that working in a store isn't hard graft on some departments, just comparing the two jobs as like for like isn't accurate.

In terms of using machinery, yes our DCs use powered MHE for many tasks but that also brings with it significant risk of injury to yourself or others in a cold and noisy environment.

Loading a trailer in a fresh site is probably one of the most complicated things we ask a colleague to do as a business. You have to work out what order you're going to load in, what temperature zones to set and how much of each temperature to load. Then collect the stock, arrange it safely and secure it with straps, close bulkheads and ensure temperature zones are within tolerance. All the while you also have to be mindful of the weight of stock you are loading and ensure there's enough weight over the fifth wheel, or that the bottom deck of a DD or MDDD is heavier, even if you haven't put stock on it yet. You are responsible for tens of thousands of pounds worth of stock which hinges on your diligence and decision making. Unloading one in store means opening a door, checking a temperature, and pulling stock off into a warehouse (or to a chiller if you don't have tip and fill teams anymore). Technically you could say that putting stock on a trailer and taking it off is the same but in reality it isn't.

If we look at value to the business, an average store gets what, 10,000 customers per day? An average DC services 200 stores, so around 2,000,000 customers a day. With a headcount probably only twice that of a big extra.

Again, I want to be clear that I absolutely do not think working in store is easy, but working in a DC is not on the same level in my opinion.

[Nightproduceworker]

@last hurrah think its more down to handling stock is handling stock,you put it on a cage,we take it off,no difference in the motion or muscles used to complete that task

I agree that handling stock is handling stock, but that's on a case by case basis. Picking pallets of a hundred cases of butter or fifty trays of potatoes or boxes of bananas is harder work than working cages of even the heaviest stock in store. Moving one box of bananas in +12 requires on slightly more work than doing so in a store. But the quantities involved are drastically different.

I'm not saying that working in a store isn't hard graft on some departments, just comparing the two jobs as like for like isn't accurate.

In terms of using machinery, yes our DCs use powered MHE for many tasks but that also brings with it significant risk of injury to yourself or others in a cold and noisy environment.

Loading a trailer in a fresh site is probably one of the most complicated things we ask a colleague to do as a business. You have to work out what order you're going to load in, what temperature zones to set and how much of each temperature to load. Then collect the stock, arrange it safely and secure it with straps, close bulkheads and ensure temperature zones are within tolerance. All the while you also have to be mindful of the weight of stock you are loading and ensure there's enough weight over the fifth wheel, or that the bottom deck of a DD or MDDD is heavier, even if you haven't put stock on it yet. You are responsible for tens of thousands of pounds worth of stock which hinges on your diligence and decision making. Unloading one in store means opening a door, checking a temperature, and pulling stock off into a warehouse (or to a chiller if you don't have tip and fill teams anymore). Technically you could say that putting stock on a trailer and taking it off is the same but in reality it isn't.

If we look at value to the business, an average store gets what, 10,000 customers per day? An average DC services 200 stores, so around 2,000,000 customers a day. With a headcount probably only twice that of a big extra.

Again, I want to be clear that I absolutely do not think working in store is easy, but working in a DC is not on the same level in my opinion.

and is this just one person loading the fresh stock? Or multiple workers with a machine or handwork?

[Last hurrah]

and is this just one person loading the fresh stock? Or multiple workers with a machine or handwork?

Just one, two for a fixed double decker if your store still gets them. They'll use MHE to move stock to the bay, only loading it onto a trailer if it's a standard 13m. No MHE on any deckers or short trailers/rigids - then it's all by hand.

Gets even more complex for multi run drops with more than one store on.

[Nightproduceworker]

and is this just one person loading the fresh stock? Or multiple workers with a machine or handwork?

Just one, two for a fixed double decker if your store still gets them. They'll use MHE to move stock to the bay, only loading it onto a trailer if it's a standard 13m. No MHE on any deckers or short trailers/rigids - then it's all by hand.

Gets even more complex for multi run drops with more than one store on.

what about picking and stacking of cages? How many does it take to load 64 cages for double decker. I know it's done on speed, why the cages come packed and absolute mess, which yes can be due to loading onto the lorry and travelling in the lorry. How many hours contracted to staff work to pick these cages?