Tesco employees have criticised the supermarket after a month-long delay to an agreed pay rise which will leave them on less than minimum wage while allowing Tesco to pocket savings of over £17m.
The UK’s largest retailer had initially pledged to boost the minimum pay for its staff from £11.02 to £12.02 starting next month, but has since revealed that this rise will not be introduced until 28 April, reported The Guardian.
This will be nearly a month after the legal minimum wage for those aged 21 and over rises to £11.44 on 1 April.
With more than 330,000 workers on its payroll, this delay is understood to impact around 220,000 staff members, resulting in savings of over £17m for Tesco.
However according to HMRC, the delay is allowed as minimum pay rates can be implemented from the beginning of a “pay reference period”, which for Tesco starts on 28 April.
Yet one member of staff told The Guardian: “We are all extremely angry at this especially as this was approved by our union.”
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
However, Daniel Adams, national officer for Usdaw, said that Tesco did have a right under the regulations to delay the pay rise.
“Usdaw has negotiated a significant pay rise that makes Tesco workers amongst the highest paid in the sector. While the union will always seek implementation on the pay anniversary date, which was 2 April last year, the outcome of these negotiations meant that the date was delayed until later in April to allow for the highest investment in pay possible,” he said.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We are investing over £300m in colleague pay, bringing our hourly rate to £12.02, which is significantly ahead of the national living wage, in a deal that has the full support of Usdaw.
“Our new rate is effective from our April pay period as set out in the HMRC guidelines, and we are fully compliant with all NLW requirements. We have a strong track record of making substantial investments in colleague pay and, since 2022, we have increased hourly pay by 26%, investing more than £750m in our colleagues.
Tesco’s pay increase comes as other grocers follow suit and readjust their staff pay in light of the new minimum wage of £11.44, up from £10.42.
Asda recently announced it would start paying £12.04 an hour, while Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl Co-op have increased pay to £12 an hour in recent weeks.
