STAFF at Homebase in Dumbarton have accused the company of discrimination as Scottish employees still do not know when their store will be closing.

Employees of the St James’ Retail Park store are angry because they cannot seek new employment until they are given a date for when the store will shut.

Homebase announced in November that it would be closing 24 stores, including seven in Scotland — Ayr, Dumbarton, Elgin, Falkirk, Kirkcaldy, Lanark, and Linlithgow.

It was later announced that the closures would be carried out in monthly phases and it was proposed that the Dumbarton store would cease trading in March this year.

Staff were informed of redundancy payments the week before Christmas and they were expecting to be informed of the exact closure date in the first week of January. This then changed to the end of January.

Now, in February. still no closure dates have been confirmed for any Scottish stores — yet all affected workers in England have their closure dates.

Dumbarton Homebase staff are furious because they are unable to find new employment to tie in with redundancy payments as they have no date as to when they could start a new job.

Staff have been warned not to speak to the press about the issues at the store, but one worker broke their silence and contacted the Reporter to vent their frustration.

The employee said: “This is not good enough. Why is there an apparent level of discrimination towards Scottish employees? How can families set themselves up financially when they are soon to end up on Job Seeker’s Allowance due to not having enough notice to gain new employment?

“Do we not have enough problems with the unemployment rate without a national company like Homebase adding to it? Why were staff forced to deal with phase on consultation before Christmas and New Year if things were not running to schedule?” The majority of Homebase stores are being bought out by the B&M chain and staff working in the Homebase stores will be offered the chance to interview for the positions in B&M.

However, not all staff wish to work for B&M, nor is there a suitable vacancies elsewhere in the Home Retail Group to suit everyone.

The worker who contacted the Reporter insists that many people simply want a closure date to seek employment elsewhere. Store managers and regional managers claim to have no information as to when the closure date will be given, but continue to inform Scottish staff that the stores aim to be closing sometime in March.

A spokeswoman from Homebase told the Reporter: “Homebase strongly denies any suggestions of discrimination against colleagues in Scotland. We have started a three-year nation-wide plan to revitalise Homebase for the future. This plan includes all parts of the business with one element being a programme to close some of our stores in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to make Homebase a smaller but stronger business which is better positioned to support future investment and growth.

“We understand our colleagues’ frustrations that we are unable to confirm closure dates for some stores. This is solely due to the legal process involved with securing landlords’ consent for the sale of lease to other retailers. We are working hard to resolve these issues and our priority is providing as much support as possible to colleagues during this process including where possible to help find them alternative employment within and outside Home Retail Group.”