Thousands of salaried Tesco workers forced to take real-terms pay cut
Thousands of Tesco staff have been forced to take a large real-terms pay cut as the supermarket puts a squeeze on store managers while offering bigger wage rises for lower-paid workers.
In the latest pay battle amid the cost of living crisis, the retailer’s team managers, who earn about £30,000 a year, say they have received as little as a 3% pay rise. The official rate of inflation is close to 10%, and expected to hit 11% this month.
The managers, about 6,500 of whom oversee shop-floor staff, say the real-terms cut in their salaries has come as they have seen a big increase in their workload after being asked to manage many more people because of job cuts.
One team manager told the Guardian they now have responsibility for more than 20 workers compared with about seven five years ago.
“We all feel very let down. Tesco is publicly stating that it understands how its colleagues are struggling, yet appears to be excluding a whole chunk of store staff,” one team manager said.
Others said, in messages seen by the Guardian, that their workload had increased as they had to cover for staff who were off sick because there were not enough staff to cover overtime. “We’re in the trenches and it feels like a battle to survive,” one said, while another said: “I am exhausted”.
Daniel Adams, national officer for the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said: “[We have] consistently raised the issue of pay for salaried employees within Tesco and we are pressing the business to do more for these colleagues too, given the extent and depth of the cost of living crisis.
“We continue to relay the feedback of members to the business and will be discussing the situation further with the business at our next national consultative meeting.”
A Tesco spokesperson
Read more on theguardian.com
