Just got the email about the 6 monthly results, they look ok however one thing stood out like a huge red flag. At the bottom of the email he tells us we are going to be saving 1 billion quid over the next 3 years and we all know what that looks like dont we.
Always said once this Pandemic is considered over they start going on a culling spree to save costs.
Also the rise in National Insurance & possibly Corporation Tax ect next year isn't going to help the situation neither so they have to claw all this money back somehow which usually means job losses, & it not just be Tesco's but other major retailers to as it looks like we are heading into grim times unfortunately.
Question is where will they start first?
More bull why does it not feel like it's all good in stores shelves always empty due to no staff tills always calling for non existent staff customers queuing down the aisles what happened to one in front no wonder we all shop elsewhere I think we are being told a pack of lies.
It will depend if the 1 billion pounds is all new or incorporates some of the changes announced this year.
So could include the manager changes along with the People partner ones in there.
From what our Frontend manager said yesterday after the last minute conference call on Monday they were on, they are looking at putting more Self-serve in some stores and removing more mainbank, among other efficiency changes.(return of throughout in a big way).
I wouldn't be surprised if more PFS go fully unmanned in the next couple of years, along with customer returns going through any manned checkout like other stores do, once Tobacco products drop below a certain lvl, and then there's Phone Shop, Pharmacy Etc.
From Our T35co:
To give us the fuel to invest in our priorities and to offset inflationary pressures, we need to continue our long-standing approach of being as simple, agile and productive as we can be. We want to make sure we only spend money where it adds value for customers and where it will make a real difference. In total, we are aiming for around £1 billion of savings across the Group over the next three years, freeing up resources to focus on what matters most to our customers.
From the press release:
Cost efficiency is a deep-seated principle within Te5co that has been brought back to the fore in recent years, enabling
us to regain our competitiveness and rebuild the financial strength of the business.
As we look forward, we see significant further opportunities to simplify, become more productive and reduce costs. As a
minimum, we are seeking to offset the impact of cost inflation on our business each year. In addition, we believe we can
create additional headroom that will allow us to fund investments in competitiveness and growth, supporting the other
three strategic priorities.
Having conducted a detailed review, we have identified c.£1bn of gross savings through simplification across areas such
as goods not for resale, improved productivity, optimisation of our delivery network and central overheads.
We expect to deliver these savings over the next three years. Whilst our intention is to do this predominantly through
incremental changes to existing operations, we will continually review opportunities to accelerate our plans and highlight
any exceptional costs which could be incurred as a result.
We will provide an update on progress against our performance framework and these four strategic priorities at our
interim and preliminary results each year
It means less high paid management, less shop floor staff, penny pay rises if atoll at all and double the work for those wanting to remain. Then you have the stressed management wanting to pass the buck to colleagues that only work a shift a week.
"Whilst our intention is to do this predominantly through
incremental changes to existing operations, we will continually review opportunities to accelerate our plans and highlight any exceptional costs which could be incurred as a result"
Is what's worrying me! 8-)
It will never happen but perhaps instead of axing people left, right and centre on the shop floor they need to start looking 'higher up' if, and it's pure speculation, they are planning even more 'changes' to "save money" (in the short term because in the longer term it'll bite them on the backside eventually!)
At the rate things are going we won't even need a CEO on obscene amounts of money!
I wish they would stop all this convoluted, beat around the bush garbage.
Say it straight, xyz are going. >:(
Here we go again. Bet there will be cut backs in store again. Where they take them from I don't know. On my shift on dairy I have 1 colleague and one manager filling and yet we're still over on hrs. This is getting a joke. Most managers in our store fill all day apart from one or two managers who's face fits and they spend hours in the cafe with their staff and nothing is done because they are "managing " like they are paid to do . After all the cut backs these managers are still there however the ones that work aren't 🤬🤬
Interesting to see what was the only target of the big 6 that was missed......colleagues recommend T as a good place to work or so. Maybe they think these are where the savings can be made. Disappointed not to get more than a thank youmto colleagues, whilst no doubt managers and directors will be rewarded and shareholders are having "value" returned to,them by way of share buy back, which will also help directors reach their bonus targets via EPS measure
3 areas I see structure changes happening, In Express, replacing SMs in low taking stores with cluster managers who will look after 2 or 3 low taking stores and Store Directors in Superstore formats being replaced with Area Managers and an SOM covering 2 regional groups and a change to SS structure so it now goes CA -> SL -> TM -> 1 DSM rather than Lead Managers -> SM -> SOM/AM rather than 1 SD per SS.
Morrisons are going to have a good Christmas >:D
So Tesco doing nicely can't say the same for the government prices on every thing increasing except wages this is going to be a blood bath for Boris remember polltax riots then get ready for the inflation riots because people have had enough .
Can you say if this is store level email or higher up the food chain. A billion is a hell of alot. The cuts will need to be huge
Some one posting they got a email about cuts is not 100 percent true, All the information is on our tesco. So it isnt a email that only someone got. The way the post was reported it sounded like a email that only high up people got. This is just scaring people. Reading into more than it might be. Just my personal thought. It was nice someone else posted the press release report tho
For years, all the strategy is about cutting cost. No ceo and manager got ability to head on with marketing strategy against lidl or aldi. Only to make yearly reports looks good on the surface, fooling some investor who can read deeper than number. For the high up is just to justified their high salary and bonus.
It is another carlos ghosn style that in the end, the company will suffer and the lower worker will take the most of the impact.
Its the Ken Murphy Our Half Year results email everyone can get if they opt in. Opt in and read it for yourselves the paragraph you are looking for is near the bottom with the headline of
Save to Invest.
No conspiracy's no scare mongering its in black and white for all to see.
You also have to remember the recent structure change of SLs introduction to SS formats is planned to take years to come to fruition as they're relying on natural wasteage ratger than paying out redundancy, when this does happen, it will account for a significant chunk of this cost savings.
Also they don't mention savings purely on operational costs, they could also be relying on different suppliers to provide a cheaper service.
Heard they might be introducing the IndeedFlex app to get Assistants. Sainsburys are using this already.
What's the IndeedFlex App @Tesla? What does it do?
Supplies staff Google it
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/16339460/boris-johnson-national-living-wage-hike/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1633509302
This would be an impetus against Tesco looking at cost savings on lower than inflation pay rises. If this proves true, it really gives Tesco very little wiggle room to give a poor pay rise next year and would have further knock on effects if they continue as they have been doing with pay rises being the same amount across most grades diminishing the differential.
A billion pounds is a lot of money. It equates to about £2500 for every Tesco employee (approximately 400,000 employees worldwide). Not that this metric matters, it just serves to emphasise how much money it is. There could be some quite radical cost cutting and the penny pinching pay rises will continue. I would guess that the savings from this years management restructure are in the tens of millions so there are a lot of savings still to be made.
I don't believe Boris made any reference to the level of the NLW in his speech.
What his speech and his general rhetoric have been/did say is that he wants to move to a high skill/high wage economy.
However, the problem for retail and a lot of other industries is that the skiils required to do the job are "low" - so unless all our jobs just disappear, then our jobs will always be low skill and low pay. I'm not saying this to diminish any of the people that work for Tesco - and I know in terms of payrises in the past and other discussions, people state that they have gained skills working for Tesco over a number of years etc.etc.
However, the crux of the matter is:
How much training does a new starter get to do the job and if experienced staff have left the company for any reason, how long has it taken to replace them - or share their job around - and at what level - generally the lowest paid grade (B/C general asst I think)
In terms of Tesco saving £1bn over three years - as others have said, much of that may already be in the "system" working its way through - other suggestions might be:
if Online is working so well for Tesco, then we don't need so many stores - we could move to a giant online DC like Ocado.
Another thing I've noticed from working in store - not "saving" as such but more like "windfall profits" -
the fact that Tesco seem to have moved nearly all their special offers to Clubcard deals means that anyone without a clubcard is "paying over the odds" - surely this must be boosting the bottom line.
Quote from: whatajoke2019 on 06-10-21, 10:01AM
From Our T35co:
To give us the fuel to invest in our priorities and to offset inflationary pressures, we need to continue our long-standing approach of being as simple, agile and productive as we can be. We want to make sure we only spend money where it adds value for customers and where it will make a real difference. In total, we are aiming for around £1 billion of savings across the Group over the next three years, freeing up resources to focus on what matters most to our customers.
From the press release:
Cost efficiency is a deep-seated principle within Te5co that has been brought back to the fore in recent years, enabling
us to regain our competitiveness and rebuild the financial strength of the business.
As we look forward, we see significant further opportunities to simplify, become more productive and reduce costs. As a
minimum, we are seeking to offset the impact of cost inflation on our business each year. In addition, we believe we can
create additional headroom that will allow us to fund investments in competitiveness and growth, supporting the other
three strategic priorities.
Having conducted a detailed review, we have identified c.£1bn of gross savings through simplification across areas such
as goods not for resale, improved productivity, optimisation of our delivery network and central overheads.
We expect to deliver these savings over the next three years. Whilst our intention is to do this predominantly through
incremental changes to existing operations, we will continually review opportunities to accelerate our plans and highlight
any exceptional costs which could be incurred as a result.
We will provide an update on progress against our performance framework and these four strategic priorities at our
interim and preliminary results each year
what a load of bovine excrement. cost cutting so that ceo and his mates at the top get the savings!!!
Since coming out of the EU, there's less migration, therefore smaller labour pool. There's also age demographics with less younger people replacing retirees. To attract, and keep staff, employers, including retail, could do with offering more full-time contracts, or at least 16 hours a week. This is how things were, before all the migration/cheap labour. It could take a while to come about, we'll have to see, and could mean more supermarket stores closing.
Quote from: barafear on 07-10-21, 03:16PM
I don't believe Boris made any reference to the level of the NLW in his speech.
What his speech and his general rhetoric have been/did say is that he wants to move to a high skill/high wage economy.
However, the problem for retail and a lot of other industries is that the skiils required to do the job are "low" - so unless all our jobs just disappear, then our jobs will always be low skill and low pay. I'm not saying this to diminish any of the people that work for Tesco - and I know in terms of payrises in the past and other discussions, people state that they have gained skills working for Tesco over a number of years etc.etc.
However, the crux of the matter is:
How much training does a new starter get to do the job and if experienced staff have left the company for any reason, how long has it taken to replace them - or share their job around - and at what level - generally the lowest paid grade (B/C general asst I think)
In terms of Tesco saving £1bn over three years - as others have said, much of that may already be in the "system" working its way through - other suggestions might be:
if Online is working so well for Tesco, then we don't need so many stores - we could move to a giant online DC like Ocado.
Another thing I've noticed from working in store - not "saving" as such but more like "windfall profits" -
the fact that Tesco seem to have moved nearly all their special offers to Clubcard deals means that anyone without a clubcard is "paying over the odds" - surely this must be boosting the bottom line.
Retail is a low wage low skill industry, however it is not immune to the effects of supply and demand, the heightened inflation we're currently going through is somewhat artificial, with the issues around labour shortages of HGV drivers and to a lesser extent service industry workers ultimately effecting the supply chain and ability to replenish, productivity as a value of GDP over time is slowing down, meaning less products/services generated over time with a panic buying mentality to consumer spending habits leading to greater scarcity and as a result, inflation.
Tesco has been depicted by the media as being too big for their boots, thinking they're big enough for inflation to not apply, hence the numerous HGV driver strikes and other union action. Tesco is big enough to absorb some of the cost increases before consumers see it but it won't sustain that for long, and these labour shortages are estimated to be throughout xmas and well into the next year, eventually we will start seeing higher prices on everyday goods.
With other unskilled job opportunities paying over the odds due to current labour market and economic conditions, Tesco isn't really in a position to cheap out on wages, it is currently an employees market, not an employers, the speculated increase to the NLW to £9.42 an hour next April places it dangerously close to Tescos floor wage of £9.55. The stingiest Tesco has ever been is If I recall correctly paying about 20p above the NLW and that was in a low inflation environment.
It'd be a very risky move if they don't factor in current inflation levels and the state of the labour market in the next review.
As for the speculation on Tescos clubcard offers. There's been media reports on that to, depicting it as a price scandal (the few items been shown as an example had the non-clubard price way above RRP/SRP and with it, the normal price). With the cost of living crisis getting worse and worse, these marketing strategies becomecless effective, only the Middle class Conservative demographic without a clubcard would get fleeced from this, everyone else will have probably defected to the discounters.
Quote from: barafear on 06-10-21, 03:31PM
Interesting to see what was the only target of the big 6 that was missed......colleagues recommend T as a good place to work
Must admit to having a bit of a snigger when I saw that. :D
Quote from: NightAndDay on 07-10-21, 08:40PM
Quote from: barafear on 07-10-21, 03:16PM
I don't believe Boris made any reference to the level of the NLW in his speech.
What his speech and his general rhetoric have been/did say is that he wants to move to a high skill/high wage economy.
However, the problem for retail and a lot of other industries is that the skiils required to do the job are "low" - so unless all our jobs just disappear, then our jobs will always be low skill and low pay. I'm not saying this to diminish any of the people that work for Tesco - and I know in terms of payrises in the past and other discussions, people state that they have gained skills working for Tesco over a number of years etc.etc.
However, the crux of the matter is:
How much training does a new starter get to do the job and if experienced staff have left the company for any reason, how long has it taken to replace them - or share their job around - and at what level - generally the lowest paid grade (B/C general asst I think)
In terms of Tesco saving £1bn over three years - as others have said, much of that may already be in the "system" working its way through - other suggestions might be:
if Online is working so well for Tesco, then we don't need so many stores - we could move to a giant online DC like Ocado.
Another thing I've noticed from working in store - not "saving" as such but more like "windfall profits" -
the fact that Tesco seem to have moved nearly all their special offers to Clubcard deals means that anyone without a clubcard is "paying over the odds" - surely this must be boosting the bottom line.
Retail is a low wage low skill industry, however it is not immune to the effects of supply and demand, the heightened inflation we're currently going through is somewhat artificial, with the issues around labour shortages of HGV drivers and to a lesser extent service industry workers ultimately effecting the supply chain and ability to replenish, productivity as a value of GDP over time is slowing down, meaning less products/services generated over time with a panic buying mentality to consumer spending habits leading to greater scarcity and as a result, inflation.
Tesco has been depicted by the media as being too big for their boots, thinking they're big enough for inflation to not apply, hence the numerous HGV driver strikes and other union action. Tesco is big enough to absorb some of the cost increases before consumers see it but it won't sustain that for long, and these labour shortages are estimated to be throughout xmas and well into the next year, eventually we will start seeing higher prices on everyday goods.
With other unskilled job opportunities paying over the odds due to current labour market and economic conditions, Tesco isn't really in a position to cheap out on wages, it is currently an employees market, not an employers, the speculated increase to the NLW to £9.42 an hour next April places it dangerously close to Tescos floor wage of £9.55. The stingiest Tesco has ever been is If I recall correctly paying about 20p above the NLW and that was in a low inflation environment.
It'd be a very risky move if they don't factor in current inflation levels and the state of the labour market in the next review.
As for the speculation on Tescos clubcard offers. There's been media reports on that to, depicting it as a price scandal (the few items been shown as an example had the non-clubard price way above RRP/SRP and with it, the normal price). With the cost of living crisis getting worse and worse, these marketing strategies becomecless effective, only the Middle class Conservative demographic without a clubcard would get fleeced from this, everyone else will have probably defected to the discounters.
It was 12p above NMW to be more precize.
Regarding the emplyees market i must say that at the moment retailers are testing the waters.
Going thrue media about retail on the continent within countries with low unemployment you can accually see that retail wages are high compared to minimum wage. Easly as much as 30%.
Here in the UK low paid jobs are still low and no signs for better. Boris want high pay economy but soon we might have few more milions earning minimum wage. This will increase Income Inequality.
however they make the £1bn of savings it will not be good news for the minions ,there is still a top heavy mm presence in stores particullarly extra/superstores which could be trimmed i was suprised to learn that express stores in my area have got store manager and shift leaders.
There's a massive retention problem with Shift Leaders in Express formats as they're not like for like in terms of role definitions compared to the SS formats. The role is easily equivalent to TM in Express as they are the on duty manager and the site manager in the absence of the SM which is 90% of the time.
The only cuts they can really make to Express is turning SMs into cluster managers in Cat A and B stores, it's already cut to the brim everywhere else.
In terms of Express structure it goes CA/SC/admin ->Shift Leaders -> SM, you can't remove any of these roles, there's no simplifying this structure unless they make SMs cluster Managers and make the SLs Team Managers due to the reduced presence of the SM.
Quotes from Mr Ken:
I was going to copy and paste - but the FT website seemingly had a warning saying it was a breach of copyright to copy and paste elsewhere - didn't want to get VLH into trouble.
I'm assuming providing the link isn't a breach of copyright.
https://www.ft.com/content/436fb11b-3884-4663-b64c-05be8e4b0201
Financial times is not free to read unfortunately.
I'm not a subscriber and it seemed to allow me to read it
https://www.businesstelegraph.co.uk/tesco-chief-defends-sectors-pay-record-as-retailers-profits-soar/
Can read it here for free.
Quote from: barafear on 08-10-21, 10:24PM
I'm not a subscriber and it seemed to allow me to read it
They give you 3 free articles a month I think.
Quote from: barafear on 07-10-21, 03:16PM
I don't believe Boris made any reference to the level of the NLW in his speech.
What his speech and his general rhetoric have been/did say is that he wants to move to a high skill/high wage economy.
However, the problem for retail and a lot of other industries is that the skiils required to do the job are "low" - so unless all our jobs just disappear, then our jobs will always be low skill and low pay. I'm not saying this to diminish any of the people that work for Tesco - and I know in terms of payrises in the past and other discussions, people state that they have gained skills working for Tesco over a number of years etc.etc.
However, the crux of the matter is:
How much training does a new starter get to do the job and if experienced staff have left the company for any reason, how long has it taken to replace them - or share their job around - and at what level - generally the lowest paid grade (B/C general asst I think)
In terms of Tesco saving £1bn over three years - as others have said, much of that may already be in the "system" working its way through - other suggestions might be:
if Online is working so well for Tesco, then we don't need so many stores - we could move to a giant online DC like Ocado.
Another thing I've noticed from working in store - not "saving" as such but more like "windfall profits" -
the fact that Tesco seem to have moved nearly all their special offers to Clubcard deals means that anyone without a clubcard is "paying over the odds" - surely this must be boosting the bottom line.
"Ken Murphy said — in response to comments from ministers that business had become addicted to cheap EU labour — that Tesco had raised shop-floor wages by 30 per cent since 2014 and at present paid £9.55 per hour, about 7 per cent above the UK's statutory minimum wage for adults."
I love how they tout a 30% increase in 6 years to be an amazing thing despite that most of the increase is legally mandated.
And going on about being 7% above the nlw when the £9.55 rate was given over half way into the tax year. Really the real value of how above it is will be seen from April. 7% above the NLW isn't something to give praise to either.
"It's very important to remember that retail is one of the few industries where there are loads of examples of chief executives coming from the shop floor, starting at 16 and working their way right to the top of businesses," he said.
With the exception of Philip Clarke, I don't know anyone else this has happened to, he was also very well connected as he had family higher up, nepotism played a massive factor there and even then, he was far from a good CEO.
With about half of the established economists thinking this spike in inflation is transitory and the other half uncertain, Ken describing part of the effects "a bump in the road in the run up to christmas" is also an overly naive and optimistic approach. Honestly the semi informed can read through this bs, it's like they're not even trying anymore.
I know first hand from suppliers that there's an ungodly amount of cost inflation coming imminently around 7% inflation which we will see around xmas on AB world food products.
Shh you know we just have to accept as the truth whatever they say just like managers.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/27/uk-interest-rate-rise-in-2022-becoming-more-likely-says-bank-chief-andrew-bailey
Economists and investors now believe this period of inflation will be sustained and not transitory, interest rates will go up (otherwise the currency will be devalued against other currencies which will not be good for our £2 trillion national debt) QE is reduced by £35 billion to try and curb inflation, but as it's embedded due to labour shortages, printing less money will not stop it rising it will only slow it down a little bit.
Wage increases across the board are advertised. Tesco will need to follow suit or risk losing staff that will find better pay anywhere else.
Unfortunately they will keep on employing the 'Mackid' on 7.30 contracts and cut even more off the bone.
We've seen it in my store over the last couple of months. Lots of staff who were staying put during covid (less pay but more security) are now jumping ship as confidence elsewhere grows...
Quote from: NightAndDay on 09-10-21, 09:43AM
Quote from: barafear on 07-10-21, 03:16PM
I don't believe Boris made any reference to the level of the NLW in his speech.
What his speech and his general rhetoric have been/did say is that he wants to move to a high skill/high wage economy.
However, the problem for retail and a lot of other industries is that the skiils required to do the job are "low" - so unless all our jobs just disappear, then our jobs will always be low skill and low pay. I'm not saying this to diminish any of the people that work for Tesco - and I know in terms of payrises in the past and other discussions, people state that they have gained skills working for Tesco over a number of years etc.etc.
However, the crux of the matter is:
How much training does a new starter get to do the job and if experienced staff have left the company for any reason, how long has it taken to replace them - or share their job around - and at what level - generally the lowest paid grade (B/C general asst I think)
In terms of Tesco saving £1bn over three years - as others have said, much of that may already be in the "system" working its way through - other suggestions might be:
if Online is working so well for Tesco, then we don't need so many stores - we could move to a giant online DC like Ocado.
Another thing I've noticed from working in store - not "saving" as such but more like "windfall profits" -
the fact that Tesco seem to have moved nearly all their special offers to Clubcard deals means that anyone without a clubcard is "paying over the odds" - surely this must be boosting the bottom line.
"Ken Murphy said — in response to comments from ministers that business had become addicted to cheap EU labour — that Tesco had raised shop-floor wages by 30 per cent since 2014 and at present paid £9.55 per hour, about 7 per cent above the UK's statutory minimum wage for adults."
I love how they tout a 30% increase in 6 years to be an amazing thing despite that most of the increase is legally mandated.
And going on about being 7% above the nlw when the £9.55 rate was given over half way into the tax year. Really the real value of how above it is will be seen from April. 7% above the NLW isn't something to give praise to either.
"It's very important to remember that retail is one of the few industries where there are loads of examples of chief executives coming from the shop floor, starting at 16 and working their way right to the top of businesses," he said.
With the exception of Philip Clarke, I don't know anyone else this has happened to, he was also very well connected as he had family higher up, nepotism played a massive factor there and even then, he was far from a good CEO.
With about half of the established economists thinking this spike in inflation is transitory and the other half uncertain, Ken describing part of the effects "a bump in the road in the run up to christmas" is also an overly naive and optimistic approach. Honestly the semi informed can read through this bs, it's like they're not even trying anymore.
I know first hand from suppliers that there's an ungodly amount of cost inflation coming imminently around 7% inflation which we will see around xmas on AB world food products.
This makes me think of a post that I originally made on the Pay Review thread about six months ago - here was part of my post:
Our Pay deal has been reported on Tescoplc.com - and picked up by the papers:
Part of the quote from Tesco included:
It will start from September 5, with Tesco consulting with union reps from Usdaw to come up with the pay packet.
In its announcement today, the supermarket said its hourly rate has increased by 29.2% since July 2014.
I thought I'd do a bit of research and some calculations as well to see just how generous this appears.
I'm working on the assumption that the 29.2% increase includes the 25p increase to be implemented from Sept 2021 - So using my calculator, that gets me back to an hourly rate in July 2014 of: (9.55/1.292) = £7.39
No doubt if the posts still exist on here, I could do a search and find some. I do remember when we went through the £7 barrier - but for now I'm going to assume our hourly rate was £7.39 in July 2014.
Now let's look at the National Living Wage (which was called the National Minimum wage before 2016) -
In July 2014, I believe it was £6.31 before increasing to £6.50 in October 2014.
Now the latest NLW is £8.91.
So in the same period, the Minimum legislative wage has increased from £6.31 to £8.91 or
41.2%!!!
So in line with what NightandDay has stated - coming out with a quote that Tesco have increased wages by 30% over a period of time is meaningless unless it's read in the contect that the NMW/NLW has increased by 41%!!!
And that's before we even consider the loss of benefits staff have had in the meantime - with the biggest loss being the reduction from 1.5x to 1.25x for Sundays/BHs (I'm guessing the reduction from double time happened more than seven years ago - so I'll leave that out for now).
But the other areas where Tesco have not "done the right thing" is:
Freezing of various other premiums (night/skills payments/location pay) so that they did not increase by the same % as base pay was increased by.
I'm not saying that Tesco are the only retailer to treat their "low paid" staff this poorly - but I don't recall seeing the other CEOs quoting how great they have been by increasing pay by 30%+.
Unfortunately, it's a difficult situation - Retail is a non-skilled industry (or very low skilled) -therefore, there will always be this type of conversation around it.
I cannot see a time when a major retailer will sign up to be a Living Wage Foundation payer (currently this pays £9.50/hr or £10./85/hr in London - and likely to be increased from April).
If I'm not mistaken - don't Tesco still only pay 90% of the established rate (i.e. £9.55) to new starters - albeit they are forced to pay 93% in order to meet the NLW?
And this reduced rate is paid for 12 weeks or is it more?
Last I checked it's 12 weeks or 3 months (to become "established" yet another cost cutting mechanism, regardless of experience elsewhere in Retail, you're paid a pittance compared with "established" staff, even if yiu've worked at Tesco before, resigned and rejoined.)
With inflation forecasted to be above 4% now due to the energy supplier crisis, this means the independent actual living wage figure will shoot up as well. Though the major retailers won't by choice meet it, the governments aim is for the national living wage to eventually meet the independent living wage. So even if the major Retailers won't increase it to that, eventually the governments NLW will be closer to the actual than it is now.
The big 4 paying dead on minimum wage will cause too much of a PR nightmare for them so at the very least, they will maintain their pittance of a differential. And by public pressures and government policy, will inexplicably pay the actual living wage (despite the fact it's still not going to be a living wage as most people are part time and I believe the actual living wage is based on a 40 hour week, even in cushty white collar jobs, the standard of full time now is 37.5 hours a week unless you're in finance or senior management.)
It's looking very likely a takeover buy a private buyer is looking increasingly likely.
Mr Ford> Have you posted on the correct thread? Are you seriously suggesting that Tesco will be bought out by a "private buyer"? Any evidence on this front? Or what led you to believe it's "looking very likely"?