Tesco has averted planned strike action which threatened to disrupt pre-Christmas trading after improving its pay offer to distribution staff. Planned industrial action in the week before Christmas has now been suspended pending the ballot result due on Wednesday 22 December.
Ballots of more than 5,000 Usdaw members, including drivers and warehouse workers at nine Tesco distribution centres including Daventry Clothing, Goole, Hinckley, Lichfield, Livingston, Magor (both trunk and main sites), Peterborough and Southampton, opened yesterday.
Usdaw is recommending support for the revised pay deal, which amounts to 6% in total, a significant improvement on the previously rejected 4% offer. The union has negotiated a 5.5% increase, backdated to July, and a further 0.5% from the end of February next year.
Joanne McGuinness, Usdaw national officer, said: “Having reached this improved offer, we have suspended strike action and are recommending that our members support the new offer. Retail distribution workers are key workers who delivered essential services throughout the pandemic; they deserve this pay rise.”
