Staff call for vote on industrial action after union rep is sacked by company

IKEA is facing its first strike in Scotland after it fired a trade union rep who fought cuts to workers’ sick pay.

- ANNIE BROWN

Changes to working conditions at IKEA in the UK will see many workers relying on statutory sick pay of only £95 a week if they have coronavirus or have to self-isolate.

Staff at its Glasgow store claim sick workers will feel pressured into coming to work, putting colleagues and customers at risk.

The changes, set to kick in next month, mean even IKEA’s UK employees with perfect attendance will only be entitled to their wages for the first 10 days of sickness – short of the corona self-isolation period of two weeks.

A penalty points system dictates that if they have been absent more than twice in the previous year, they will go straight on to statutory sick pay.