Tescos wants to do away with sick pay

Tesco stops pay to cut ‘sickies’
Supermarket giant Tesco will not pay workers who take a day off sick under a trial scheme in selected new stores.
Under the scheme, workers will not be paid for the first three days they are off.

Tesco, which recently reported profits of £1.7 billion, said it was looking to cut levels of unplanned absence in its stores.

A spokesman for shopworkers’ union Usdaw said it backed the voluntary scheme at two new supermarkets.

Sick leave – real and feigned – currently costs UK businesses an estimated £11billion a year.
Tesco is introducing measures in around 20 stores in a bid to reduce the number of “sickies” workers take.

A spokesman said: “If someone needs a day off to take their son to the dentist, we will bend over backwards to take that into account in a planned way.”

He said that might mean taking the day as holiday, making the time up or simply having unpaid leave.

He told BBC News Online: “This is not about penalising those who are genuinely ill.

“Unplanned absence is what we are trying to curb because it has a knock-on effect on staff and customers.”

If workers are ill for more than three days, they can revert to claiming sick pay as well as getting compensation for the previous unpaid days.

Part of the trial would involve looking at how staff who are off ill for less than three days can prove they have actually been sick.

Extra holiday

The scheme is only being introduced in new stores, and its terms are fully explained to staff before they join, the spokesman said.

He said feedback from staff had been “very good” since the scheme started.

Tesco has already introduced the scheme in its Irish stores, where the company says absenteeism rates are lower.

A second trial scheme being introduced in the UK offers staff the incentive of more holiday allowance, but reduces it when they take a day off sick. A third offers rewards for good attendance.

All three will be tested for several months before their effect is evaluated.

‘No entitlement’

Kevin Hegarty, spokesman for the Usdaw, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said the union was supporting the trials.

He said: “Tesco is looking at ways of trying to encourage people to take less days of as ‘sickies’.

“Everyone who is taking part in the scheme is doing so on a voluntary basis. No one is compelled to do it.”

Rival chain Asda already operates a similar scheme, and also offers flexible hours for those who need time off for personal reasons for religious beliefs.

Employment lawyer Rakesh Patel of union law firm Thompson’s told The Observer newspaper: “There is no law entitling you to sick pay.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/3719183.stm

Published: 2004/05/16 14:24:25 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Don’t know about you but I would rather that shop staff took time off sick than served me in the supermarket. Last thing I need is an assistant coughing and sneezing over me and my purchases, dripping snot as they hand me my change.
Wouldn’t this actually make things worse for the staff and management? I used to work in a photographic darkroom set up and when we had one martyr who insisted he was fine when it was quite obvious he should have been home in bed we all got it within a couple of days – and then he had to man the fort since the rest of us were not martyrs!

What say you?

Flood.™