Workers at The Warehouse in Manukau, Auckland are striking on Thursday afternoon.

The Warehouse staff are planning "wild cat" strikes to protest against a "measly" 30 cent pay increase offer.

First Union organiser Dennis Maga said 18 union members at The Warehouse Manukau are taking impromptu strike action on Thursday from 2.30pm to 5pm, after rejecting the company's offer of an extra 30c an hour.

The increase would lift the lowest pay rate of a worker at The Warehouse to $15.32 an hour, Maga said.

The adult minimum wage is $14.75 an hour.

The Warehouse spokeswoman Julia Morton said about 400 of retailer's 8,500 staff were affected by the pay rate increase.

The Warehouse had been bargaining with First Union for the six weeks and an agreement had been reached on 23 out of 24 negotiating points, she said.

The majority of The Warehouse staff were covered by the career retailer wage programme, she said.



The retail wage programme increasedpay rates from between $15.50 to $17.85 an hour to $18.31 to $20.03 an hour, or about 17 per cent over the past two years, she said.

The increase from $15.02 per hour to $15.32 referred to by First Union was "highly misleading" as it only applied to the 12 lowest paid employees and only for the first three months of their employment, she said.

Maga said the industrial action would spread to other stores.

"Other stores are also keen but we're scheduling it one by one."

Workers at The Warehouse were overworked due to deliberate understaffing in stores across the country, he said.

"Our people are overworked and underpaid."