Just recieved my copy of “Truck and Driver” Sep 2004 edition ,and in the letters page a letter headed “Tesco sick pay” caught my attention.I am relieving our Yard Tug Operator at a large DC and getting to know the people working there,I know what I thought of them before-but a few bad apples etc,they still cant believe the low wages and conditions truck drivers recieve.
Lo and behold I read this 7.5 hours deducted off your sick days plus take 2 periods of sick leave off in your first 6 months and you are out the door.Is this fair dinkum?Remember the “Good Old days of 4 year old kids working in the coal mines?!?”
Please tell me this is wrong .
Is this is the standard norm of UK work places?How about OH&S issues?What if Joe Blow forklift driver is too ill to handle his dangerous machine but goes to work regardless and kills someone?Also A truck driver under threat of dismissal fills himself up with so much pills and drugs as to drive his truck as to keep his job and wipes out a school bus?
It gets better ,The Aldi DC…Yes drivers here for Aldi do all the unloading at stores,but at DC’s where in most cases you are the third party involved in transport…
I hope those two letters were late April Fools jokes.
Its true I tell you, its all true!!
Tesco, as every other company in the world, have a responsibility to its ‘SHARE’ holders to make as much profit as possible, thats a given truth…
One of the biggest costs any company has is its wage bill and any way that that can be reduced is actively embraced by all bosses…
A large part of the Tesco wage bill was seen to be made up of ‘sick pay’ (not Statatury Sick Pay-SSP) and they were fed up with paying full wack to those just playing the system and not getting anything in return…
They have tried incentive schemes in different regions, an extra days pay for a sick free six months, an extra days leave for a sick free three months etc. etc.
All work for a short time, but soon return to the norm, no one seems to be motivated enough to work through their illness and if they are going to be punished for taking one day off, why not take the whole week off but still only be punished by being on ‘report’ for 3 months.
Thats the situation at our depot (Harlow) at the moment. If you have 1 day off sick, you will be on report for 3 months. If you have another sick day during those 3 months, you go on report for a further 6 months and then if you have another sick day during those 6 months, you are very likely to be out on your ear… Unless of course there are genuine, justifiable reasons for this to occur.
There is what Tesco call TOFD, Time Off For Dependents. If you can warn them that you are likely to be off because a dependent needs you, fine, but if you cant, no major problems, but you have to prepare youself for the usual questions and ‘doubts’
Im not defending them, just explaining the system, to be honest I dont think its the best way of doing things, but if you want very good money, the smooth does not always come without some rough bits…
Terry
I don’t really know what you are going on about 
Is this a contractor you are talking about When I drove for Tesco at MK and Brackmills there was no company on the face of the Earth could touch them as regard employee rights, sick pay and Leasure time/ holiday pay, I was even told one day that I had 5 days sick pay unused for that year so would I take them before April please, … I took them 
All I can think of is that this refers to shop staff who in my oppinion were treated like crap, with much lower pay and very poor workers rights.
I was told by a bloke working at the hatfield site,near welham green,that the money and condtions were the bees knees.
I did notice over the years that the harlow end of things are always looking for drivers 
I’m not sure about Harlow, but both Milton Keynes depots, Brackmills, Crick, Southampton and Magor are all Tesco employee’s.
Doncaster, Middleton, The Scotish depots and both Kent depots are contractors with crap conditions and pay compared to Tesco.
When I worked there it was dead mans shoes if you got a job (Can’t remember who died for me but thank you anyway ) 
Pat
I appreciate that it has been a little while since you have worked for Tesco as a driver, but, I feel sure that you will understand that ‘conditions’ of employment have a nasty habit of, well, er… changing every now and then!
I currently work for Tesco, employed by them at their Harlow Distribution Centre and I can assure you that the conditions of employment that I have described are correct.
Yes, the pay and conditions are extreemly good, but like I said in the previous post, to get the smooth, you do occassionaly have to experience the rough… Its a simple fact of life.
Terry
Johno
The pay and conditions are excellent, Tesco, in this respect are generally accepted as the ‘industry leaders’.
Obviously, to a degree, other major supermarket chains are considered to be ‘good’ payers, hence Pat’s observation that the jobs are only available via ‘dead mans shoes’. Once your ‘in’ you tend to stay… until you pop your cloggs that is…
This could also be because if you leave, you lose your benefits, like a very good pension, staff discount, free and cheap share schemes etc. etc the list is endless. To some degree you are ‘handcuffed’ to the job. Just picture this scenario: My Wife started working for Tesco about 16 years ago, on the checkouts initially, earning about £25.00 a week… Tesco used to issue their 10% discount card straight away in those days… so at the end of the week when my Wife was paid, she went shopping, as one does, and immediately put her hard earned cash (and some) back in the Tesco till, the 10% discount was a powerful pyschological incentive then. When she did leave, after about 10 years, she very nearly didnt do so, because of the pension she had built up, the free and discounted shares she would not be able to get any more, no longer able to take advantage of the 10% discount etc. etc. (As a matter of interest, it was the best decision she ever made, to leave Tesco that is)
Harlow is not always looking for drivers, unless you consider about 25 last year and another 10 just recently… They do have a vast turnover of agency staff, the good ones are, honestly, few and far between and they cannot always keep them. Those that dont stay tend to be the ones who damage vehicle or trailers on a regular basis…
Hopefully this clears up some of the misconceptions that surrounds Tesco, if you do have anymore questions, just ask, I will do my best to answer them. Oh by the way, staff at store level dont do too badly, yes their hourly rate is much, much lower and they do get treated appalingly by the management and as afr as their union is concerned, they are practically owned by Tesco… dont you know…
Terry
I was mearly stating what I have been told by local folk,and noticed the year round vacanies there.
I was also told by that very same chap at hatfield,that in 6 months you could earn in exess of 30k
Highly unlikely to say the least,or is this true Terry
Johno
Okay, I was hoping I would not have to do this, its probably one of the most complicated wage structures you are likely to come across… I will keep the basics to the basics and all the add ons you can work out for yourself.
Here we go:
Basic Day/Night is 12 hours
Basic Hourly Rate is £10.26
Basic Week is 5 Days/Nights
Therfore, Basic daily wage is £120.00 approx.
Basic weekly wage is £600.00
Normal Shift Pattern is 5 weeks on 1 week off
Which means that over a 5 week period your wage would be £3000.00
If you work your week 6, you get paid double time which will be £1200.00
The total for a 6 week Shift Pattern would therefore be £4200.00
Extend that over 6 months and you arrive at £16.800.00
On top of that you will also be paid the following:
Holiday Pay, at least £65.00 per week (This figure is based on your P60 totals and can go as high as £90+ per week if you have had a good year)
Attendance Bonus, about £15.00 per week
Shift Premium, is paid if you work unsocial hours, weekends and staggered days/nights. This ranges from a 1/3 to 1/2 times your hourly rate for however many hours are worked over certain time frames.
Drivers allowance, a £1.00 each day for every day worked.
Dont forget also that a normal daily shift could be anything from 9 hours to 11 hours and anything over that will paid at overtime rates.
I work a 4 week rota, which means that I work 3 weeks and then have the 4th week off. This means that over a six month period I have the opportunity to work an extra 6 weeks at overtime rates. (As we are paid 4 weekly, its about 13 extra weeks per year)
I know we have to be careful about hours etc. but this system has been in place for over 15 years and no one has been pulled up with any serious infringements.
So, in conclusion, £30k is a bit over the top, £20k is a bit more realistic, before tax of course…
Terry
Terry,
Arn’t you on the same anual hours as I was at MK and Brackmills
We worked 7 weeks then 1 week off, but had leasure days’ in other weeks ao we sometimes had a 2 day working week but a full weeks pay and got time and a half for all unscheduled days, or basic plus a day added to your holiday pay. we still got our holiday pay spread across the whole year and added to each weeks wage, just like you
Hello Pat
Yes, essentially its the same. We are contracted to do 2041 hours per year. Some shift patterns are: 7 week rota = 6 weeks on then 1 week off (leisure week) and another is my 4 week rota = 3 weeks on and then 1 week off. On my 4 week rota, for the weeks that I work, I have to do a minimum of 58hrs (wk 1) then 48hrs for wk 2 & 3. If I work my leisure week (wk 4) I can be paid at the overtime rates or have the hours put into reserve or a combination of both. If I put my hours into reserve (banked) then I can use them for days off, holidays, reduced shifts etc.
Yes, we get paid our holiday weekly, so we have to try and build up some reserve hours so that we dont owe Tesco any hours. For someone like me that enjoys my time off, yes, I do have a life outside of Tesco!! LOL!! I tend to build up quite a few ‘owed’ hours. I currently owe about 110hrs which I need to ‘burn’ off before the end of the year… There is one guy in the warehouse that has over 1000 hours in reserve, 6 months work, that Tesco owe HIM!! and they are worried that he will want to take this time off in one hit, so there are moves a foot to restrict the number of hours that can be banked, obviously the Union are fighting it, Ha! Ha!
There is one other shift pattern that has just been changed. Its a 4 week rota where the first 2 weeks are days, the 3rd week is nights and the 4th week is your normal leisure week, although most drivers on this shift did days on their 4th week, because of the ‘unsocial’ work pattern, they managed to negotiate full night premium for their day work!!! Phenominal money for a normal weeks work… However Tesco soon put paid to that and they have all had to go full nights or full days, no more split shifts.
Hope thats a bit clearer, again this is specific to Harlow, I have heard that Welham Green work slightly differently, others, well, as your own experience suggests, they also could be different…
Terry