Sainsbury’s staff will no longer be paid for breaks or get bonuses as supermarket announces shake-up
The supermarket is taking moves to raise pay to £9.20 an hour for all staff - but breaks will no longer be paid for
SAINSBURY'S is raising the minimum wage for all workers to £9.20 an hour - or £9.80 if you work in one of the central London stores.
But under the new contracts, staff will no longer be able to benefit from yearly bonuses or paid breaks during the working day.
This means that under the new proposals, workers' lunch breaks will not be counted for in their pay.
The minimum pay at Sainsbury's is currently £8 an hour so if the new plans are given the go ahead, staff will receive an extra £1.20 an hour.
For example, a worker who's paid £8 an hour will work 39 hours a week and will earn £16,224 over the year.
Under the new plans, they would work less hours - 36.75 a week - but earn £17,581 a year, or an extra £1,357
But in order for the hourly rate to increase, the staff bonus which is rolled out every year based on a store's performance, will be ditched.
Sainsbury's claims that the £100million investment may see "a small proportion" of workers miss out on the benefits but it plans to "support these colleagues" with "top-up payments for 18 months" to make sure they're not earning anything less than they do now.
They also hope to turn 22 individual roles into just five roles - but it's unclear if some staff will lose out on their job.
The new roles will be trading assistant, food services assistant, online assistant, GM & clothing assistant and services assistant.
The supermarket hopes to roll out new contracts for all staff at 130,000 of their UK stores from September 2018, if the plans are approved after a consultation process in the coming months.
Unite Union, which has 12,000 members working at the supermarket, has welcomed the basic pay rise but is set to reject the plans as there will be no more payrises until 2020.
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Earlier this year, Sainsbury's announced that a number of management staff would lose their job under plans to shake up these roles.
According to Sainsbury's, the money saved by the restructuring has allowed the retailer to raise the minimum wage of its workers.
The latest news is refreshing for workers in the retail industry after many shops have announced cuts in staff after poor Christmas sales.
After a "poor" start to the year, bosses at Homebase have decided to potentially close 20 to 40 of the worst performing UK stores putting 2,000 jobs at risk.
Tesco announced that it will be axing 1,700 store management roles in a bid to "deliver simpler, more helpful experience for colleagues and customers".
Last week, retail giants Toys R Us and Maplin both went into administration putting 5,500 jobs at risk between them.
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