By guest author Sahar Nazir from Retail Gazette
February 23, 2023
· Sainsbury’s offers some staff the option to work a four-day week
· It comes amid wider adoption of the four-day working week across business
Sainsbury’s has offered workers the option of working four days a week to give staff more flexibility.
According to The Times, the grocer‘s staff based at its head offices in Holborn, Coventry and Milton Keynes, as well as its warehouses, and store managers in its 1400 UK stores, have been given the option.
Staff have been given the option to work their 37.5-hour contracts in a seven-day week, which means some head-office workers could work on a Saturday and take a day off in the week, or could work longer weekday hours.
However, they would not be permitted to take consecutive Fridays off from work, The Times reported.
Sainsbury’s move comes after it emerged this week that the vast majority of companies taking part in the world’s largest trial of a four-day week have opted to continue with the new working pattern.
Of the 61 companies that entered the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day week, including 18 who have made it permanent.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We are always looking to evolve our ways of working to ensure we can do the best possible job for customers while continuing to be a brilliant place to work for our colleagues. We are currently testing new ways to be more efficient and offer improved flexibility.”
However, it is understood that the retailer will not be taking a one-size-fits-all approach to working hours, as many of its employees work in stores.
The grocer recently invested £185 million to give retail hourly-paid colleagues a pay rise amid the cost-of-living crisis.
This marked Sainsbury’s second pay rise this financial year, taking its total investment in colleague pay to GBP 205 million.