Tesco’s “You shop, we drop” strapline, seems to have taken on a more sinister meaning after the company announced that it would be axing at least 150 jobs.
The company has said the cuts come as it aims to transfers 2,000 depot jobs in a restructuring effort after it announced that it would be closing three centres in its distribution sector.
The depots facing the closure are Harlow, which has 800 workers, Barlborough near Chester, which employs 400 people, and Weybridge in Surrey with 650 staff.
The company’s site in Magor in Monmouthshire, which employs 800 people, has also admitted that it will be cutting 150 staff.
The supermarket has said that it will aim to transfer some jobs to its new shiny depots in Berkshire and London where it said 2,000 would be created.
It also claimed that it would aim to give staff in the closing down depots new jobs within the company.
However, local workers have spoken out, telling the Harlow Star that many won’t be willing to uproot their families to move to the new locations.
This isn’t the first time this year that the company’s distribution sites have been in the news. Earlier this month ex Tesco warehouse staff and forklift drivers spoke out, claiming that they were forced to wear armbands so Tesco could monitor their work efficiency and the amount of time they took for breaks.
At the time Tesco denied that the bands were used for staff monitoring, claiming that they were only used by drivers to scan the stock they collected from supermarket distribution points and send it out for delivery. It said this meant staff didn’t have to worry about carrying around pads and paper.
However, workers claimed that they had been used to spy on them with some saying they had been called in front of management if they took unscheduled toilet breaks.
Over in the company’s marketing department, however, the story is completely different – with reports that the supermarket is looking to fill 40 vacancies.
Jobs going include head of online marketing for F&F and marketing manager for Clubcard, as the company aims to drive its online and internal communications initiative.
