Britain’s supermarkets become embroiled in pay war

Britain’s supermarkets have become embroiled in a pay war as they fight to retain staff and fill vacancies.

As workers face higher bills for food and energy, the grocers are upping pay and offering enhanced staff discounts to ease the pressure.

Tesco, the country’s biggest supermarket with 476,000 employees, will pay store and distribution centre staff a minimum of £10.10 per hour, up from £9.55 per hour.

Fight: As workers face higher bills for food and energy, the grocers are upping pay and offering enhanced staff discounts to ease the pressure

Delivery drivers will be paid a minimum of £11 per hour, a 90p jump, with the pay rises coming into effect in the coming months. Tesco UK and Ireland boss Jason Tarry said the rise was ‘well-deserved’.

The business also upped the amount staff that can benefit from with their Clubcard discounts from £1,000 to £1,500.

Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, will hit back this morning, telling staff in outer London they will be paid the London Living Wage of £11.05 per hour. It is the first of the UK’s big four supermarkets to pay the Real Living Wage and London Living Wage.

Sainsbury’s pays the Real Living Wage of £10 an hour across the country and the London Living Wage of £11.05 – but only in central rather than outer London.

The change follows pressure from a group of shareholders who have called on the supermarket to become accredited by the Living Wage Foundation.

Staff in outer London will benefit from the 55p hourly pay rise from next month. Chief executive Simon Roberts said: ‘We know times are tough for everyone.’

Lidl, which has 26,000 employees in the UK, said in November that it was boosting its starting salary from £9.50 to £10.10 from March.

And the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, announced a 2 per cent pay rise for staff that will see their minimum hourly wages hit £9.90 this year.

Bumper hike at BT

BT is to hand a £1,500 pay increase to 58,000 workers.

It is the telecoms giant’s biggest pay increase for more than 20 years.

The company said the pay rise is being given to workers across BT Group, including engineers, contact centre staff and retail staff.

BT said the increase is ‘focused on the lowest paid workers’ and will work out as a roughly 8pc increase for some members of staff.

The move comes after lengthy negotiations with the Communications Workers Union (CWU). But the CWU said it has rejected the proposal and will ballot members over strike action.

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