Labour Court recommends £200 payments as Batchelors changes warehouse shifts

The Labour Court recommended that Batchelors implement revised warehouse shift hours and pay £200 to each affected worker who had been on the existing hours before 1 January 1993. The recommendation was dated 27 July 1993. The dispute concerned the Distribution Department, where workers remained on earlier shifts under a 1988 agreement. Batchelors said an earlier start was needed to load customer trucks promptly; the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union argued that the established hours had become the norm and that shift work was already difficult for workers. The Court considered the earlier start a customer requirement and said the 1988 agreement remained in force. It recommended that the union accept the revised hours under that agreement. The £200 payment was recommended for eligible workers when the change was implemented.