By Phil Coleman Chief reporter

Published at 13:42, Thursday, 03 April 2008

SEVEN workers at a Christian bookshop in Carlisle who were dismissed because they refused to accept new contracts after their business was sold are to take the US owners to a tribunal.

Jobs row: The bookshop formerly run by SPCK

Those affected all worked at the bookshop, in the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral, which was run by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Their new boss – a Texas-based charity known as SSG – expressed regret after confirming that because the staff had refused to accept new employment contracts they lost their jobs on March 31.

The charity plans to hire replacement staff.

But the shop’s former manager Raymond Witty issued a statement, claiming that the shop’s staff were dismissed by email by a senior official within the SSG Bookshops group.

He said: “The new contracts offered poorer terms and conditions, including asking staff to work longer hours for no extra pay, loss of sick pay, part-time staff losing their guaranteed hours and more control given to the employer in relation to where staff work and when holidays are taken.

“Negotiations with staff broke down.”

He claimed staff were issued with an “ultimatum” on January 18, telling them to either sign the new contracts or lose their jobs immediately.

Christine Peacock, a lawyer with the shop workers union union Usdaw, said workers from the Carlisle shop will take their former employer to a tribunal. She said: “They were offered substantially inferior contracts, and in the particular the part-time staff were faced with an enforced casualisation of their jobs.”

In its statement, SSG said that it took over the chain in October 2006 and is now operated in a highly competitive retail environment.

The company said SPCK had been desperate to rid itself to the entire chain. The chain was losing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

Most of the shops have thrived under the management of two Texan brothers, Mark and Phil Brewer, who run SSG, said the statement. It added that the charity continues to look for innovative ways to sell Christian books.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk