Tesco shopfloor staff said they didn’t receive a cash bonus or voucher at Christmas for the second year running.
According to reporting by The Guardian, some workers said they received a box of Quality Street instead of a monetary bonus.
While the leading retailer said it had offered staff 20% off on specific days before Christmas instead of a bonus or voucher, in 2020 staff received a 10% Christmas bonus and in other years, a shopping voucher.
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In Tesco’s annual report last year, it said the regular cash bonus paid in March would be scrapped for a higher rate of basic pay, as agreed with unions representing its workers in 2019.
The Big 4 grocer said special bonuses were given to shopfloor staff in April, May and June of 2020, while in October last year, Tesco increased pay by 20p per hour.
This came as the third time in 13 months, pushing pay to £10.30 and £10.98 in London, with employees receiving a total increase in pay last year of 8%.
In November, Tesco also offered 280,000 workers advances of up to 25% on their pay to help with the added financial pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
Tesco told The Guardian: “We have never given a regular cash bonus at Christmas and it is wrong to suggest that we have replaced one with chocolates.
“To help colleagues with their Christmas shopping this year, we doubled our colleague discount to 20% in the run-up to Christmas – one of many benefits available to our colleagues, on top of the near 8% increase in base pay we invested over last year.”
