A major restructure at Sainsbury‘s will see 400 staff jobs axed with thousands more to be affected by changes to working hours.
The UK‘s second-largest supermarket retailer plans to scrap the role of price controller, which involves a staff member ensuring the price labels around the supermarket are accurate. The role will now be taken on by other staff, forcing 400 out of work.
Those impacted will reportedly be offered a redundancy package or another role within the company.
A further 4000 staff will be impacted by plans to scrap night shifts in 140 Sainsbury‘s stores. Instead, workers will be offered early morning or late evening shifts.
“This is very bad news for those dedicated workers affected by the planned job losses and Unite will be giving our members maximum support at this difficult time,” trade union Unite‘s Julia Long said.
“We appreciate that Sainsbury‘s has a good record of redeployment of staff in these situations and we will be exploring every avenue to ensure continuing employment for our members.
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“We are now entering the 45-day consultation period and will be having meetings with management, including asking the company if it has done an equalities‘ audit of those affected by today‘s announcement.”
These changes have been made amid a spate of restructuring efforts in the UK‘s largest grocers, repositioning themselves to tackle challenges from online retailers like AmazonFresh and Ocado, as well as the discounters Aldi and Lidl which have thrown their business models into scrutiny.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury‘s responded: “We regularly review our business to ensure we are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible and our resources are in the right place, so that we can provide our customers with the best possible service.
“Following a recent review, we are making some changes to administrative roles and night shift patterns in a number of stores, subject to consultation.
“We appreciate this will be a difficult time for those colleagues affected by the changes and will support them in any way we can.”
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