Tesco salaried staff forced to take real-terms pay cut

The store’s team managers, who earn about £30,000 a year, said they received as little as a 3% pay rise but have seen an increase in workload after being asked to manage more people due to job cuts.

Salaried staff could now see a real-terms pay cut as inflation sits at 9.9% and is expected to increase to 11% this month.

One team manager told the Guardian that they now have responsibility for more than 20 workers compared with around seven five years ago.

“We all feel very let down. Tesco is publicly stating that it understands how its colleagues are struggling, yet appears to be excluding a whole chunk of store staff,” one team manager said.

“We’re in the trenches and it feels like a battle to survive,” one said in a message seen by the Guardian.

Another said: “I am exhausted”.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We benchmark pay for all roles at Tesco to ensure they are competitive against the market and we’re also mindful of the broader economic pressures our colleagues face.

“Our team managers do brilliant work, day in day out, and in addition to their pay increase this year, they also received a bonus of 4.5% in May. We’re currently speaking to both colleagues and our union representatives to understand how we might be able to support these colleagues further.”

Tesco was praised last week after announcing it would give a second pay rise this year to its lowest paid workers.

From November 13, the basic hourly rate of pay in Tesco stores will increase by a further 20p to £10.30, and to £10.98 in London.

Tesco is also bringing forward its next pay review to January, it is likely that hourly paid workers will see another pay rise in the spring.