Tesco has become the first UK supermarket to guarantee paid ‘safe leave’ for employees experiencing domestic abuse.

Britain’s largest private-sector employer will give staff up to three days, or 21 hours, of additional paid leave to deal with the practical consequences of abuse.

The leave can be taken flexibly and used to attend court hearings, arrange emergency accommodation, change locks, organise childcare or separate finances.

Tesco, which employs around 300,000 people in the UK, will not require workers to provide formal evidence of abuse before accessing the policy.

Managers have also been trained to recognise potential signs of domestic abuse, respond to disclosures and direct employees towards specialist support.

The policy was agreed with shopworkers’ union Usdaw and developed with guidance from the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse, a network of more than 2,000 UK employers.

Tesco chief people officer Emma Taylor said: “As the UK’s largest private-sector employer, we believe we have a responsibility to support colleagues in what are likely to be some of the most challenging moments in their lives.”

She said employees should be able to get practical help “without worrying about taking unpaid leave or explaining deeply personal circumstances”.

Usdaw national officer Daniel Adams urged other employers to follow Tesco’s lead, arguing that domestic abuse can have a significant impact on a survivor’s working life.

The significance for the retail sector is as much about Tesco’s size as the three days of leave itself.

Safe leave is not new in corporate Britain. Vodafone, for example, has offered employees experiencing domestic abuse up to 10 days of additional paid leave since 2019.

But Tesco is the first UK supermarket to make such a commitment, bringing the policy into an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people in stores, warehouses and distribution centres.

For staff in frontline retail roles, where working from home or moving hours at short notice may not be possible, dedicated paid leave offers something that flexible working policies alone cannot.

Tesco already provides UK employees with confidential counselling, legal and financial advice, mental health support and access to its Peoplesafe personal safety app. Safe leave will sit separately from those benefits.

The question of whether domestic abuse survivors should have a legal right to paid time away from work remains unresolved across much of the UK.

A private member’s bill seeking to create a statutory paid safe-leave entitlement was introduced in Westminster last year but fell before its second reading when the 2024-26 parliamentary session ended.

Northern Ireland has gone further. Legislation passed there provides for at least 10 days of paid safe leave each year, although the entitlement still required secondary legislation to bring it into operation as of July. Northern Ireland’s economy minister has pledged to introduce it before the end of the current Assembly mandate.

Tesco’s decision therefore goes beyond what most employers are legally required to provide.

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