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Tesco to drop extra payment for Sunday working!

105 replies

PassingStranger · 17/03/2025 21:59

It says they will increase wages though in general.

No more extra for working Sundays though!

OP posts:
Tescoworker1111 · 18/03/2025 12:26

TY78910 · 17/03/2025 22:39

If the overall pay goes up, then it all balances out in the end.

I think the double pay on Sundays is smart though as it incentives people not to request to not work them (as it's a statutory right to opt out so many do to guarantee a weekend day off) and then shops have an issue with staffing on that day. Double pay sorts that problem 😂

It’s going up but it’s not going up enough o cover the difference. I’ve been in tesco for the past 6 years and I had the premium (newly joined colleagues haven’t had it for awhile now), and now they took away the premium and given us a pay rise that doesn’t cover the difference. I only work Sundays as I am in university so now I am worse off than before working the same hours and the same job😂

Annoyeddd · 18/03/2025 11:43

Just a hangover from when most people in this country were proper Christian and went to church on Sunday as it was a day of rest (rather than just going for school entry and nice wedding photos).
Now people's religious days could be Thursday Friday Saturday or Sunday we need to get rid of this extra pay business.
Unfortunately for long service staff you cannot change their contacts.

xanthomelana · 18/03/2025 11:41

JoyousEagle · 18/03/2025 08:14

No it’s existing staff. New staff already didn’t get it.

Currently the pay (I assume for most staff) is 12.02 x 10% uplift so £13.22 an hour. This is going up to £12.64 in August but no uplift. So £0.58 an hour worse off for every Sunday hour worked. Tesco have said there will be a one off payment for Sunday staff, but conspicuously absent on details.

Not sure if a Tesco subsidiary would be exactly the same though.

Plus the one off payment will mean so many people won’t get universal credit for that month because it pushes them over the threshold. They are really not doing them any favours by paying them off.

xanthomelana · 18/03/2025 11:38

Josiezu · 18/03/2025 08:42

It’s not really their responsibility that someone relies on it, there’s no reason someone working an anti social shift on a Tuesday should receive less pay than someone choosing to work on a Sunday.

Tesco pay people a premium for antisocial hours so that person on Tuesday would get extra.

Gall10 · 18/03/2025 11:31

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 17/03/2025 22:28

Neither M&S or ASDA pay extra for Sundays. M&S you tend to work both days every other weekend, in ASDA you usually work Sat or Sun.

I was chatting with assistant in John Lewis a few weeks ago, she told me that staff who’d been there a ‘long while’ were on double pay for Sundays but newly contracted employees were on basic pay. Seems unfair to me!

wishiwasjoking · 18/03/2025 11:26

Schoolchoicesucks · 18/03/2025 09:12

But for many people, working on a Sunday means they can juggle childcare - enabling someone to stay home with kids in the week and work the weekend. For others, someone working in say a NT property or restaurant means other families can go and spend the day out together. For lots of us being able to shop on a Sunday helps split chores across the weekend and means we can have a day out on Saturday or Sunday without having to cram chores into a single weekend day.

I don't want to go back to the days when nothing was open on a Sunday. Does anyone really?

No, I think Sundays should be more hours if anything. It makes it so much easier to organise people not on zero hours contracts and give them a consistent number of hours.

Katypp · 18/03/2025 11:24

I am a bit puzzled that staff get a choice, tbh.
I have always worked in industries where weekend working was the norm and you just accepted it was part and parcel of the job.

JennieTheZebra · 18/03/2025 11:20

@Katypp Good luck ever staffing a ward ever again. On my inpatient MH ward we can barely staff nights even with substantial antisocial pay-and that’s relying on permanent staff doing paid overtime. Contracts are for 37.5 hours a week, including some weekends and nights, but the only way to make staffing work, as I said above, would have permanent staff only working weekends and nights. Would you work weekends/nights for no extra pay if you could work 9-5 Monday to Friday?

Sidewinderer · 18/03/2025 11:03

I didn’t know you have a right to opt out of Sunday working. I wonder if other people are the same.

Katypp · 18/03/2025 11:01

JennieTheZebra · 18/03/2025 09:12

NHS wards, especially those that rely heavily on bank/agency staff, really struggle to fill up weekend rotas. Effectively they’re paying, usually, nurses extra to come in on their days off because otherwise there’d be no staff. The alternative is to rota permanent staff to largely work weekends, but that’s a sure fire way to ruin staff morale and lead to people leaving for community jobs which are 9-5, weekdays only. This way you work some weekends and you can pick up some extra ones for more money, it’s a choice.
It’s easy to say that weekends off is outdated but most nurses have family that work traditional patterns and which they’d never see if forced to work every weekend. Do those that think the NHS shouldn’t pay extra for weekends also think that they shouldn’t pay extra for nights? I mean, it’s part of the job you sign up for…

Yes I do actually. Any job that involves 24/7 7 day a week rota should not be paid any extra for the hours they are contracted to work.

QwestSprout · 18/03/2025 10:59

Threads like this make me very glad I live where I do, where supermarkets are open 8am to 10pm on a Sunday just like every other day of the week. Going to England and having to remember things are either shut or will be shut early on Sundays is always a bit of a culture shock.

PassingStranger · 18/03/2025 10:53

Serencwtch · 18/03/2025 06:50

Waitrose scrapped Sunday pay in 2015.

I know someone who was getting it in 2019.

OP posts:
tropicalroses · 18/03/2025 10:03

I used to work a weekend job and my boss always bitched that she couldn't find enough cover for Sundays...no shit sherlock, its a shit day to work which is why it was always paid more. Thing with supermarkets is they know to overemploy, keep people short on hours, and then they have to take sunday shifts to make ends meet.

latetothefisting · 18/03/2025 09:54

PaterPower · 17/03/2025 22:37

Well that sort of comment just shows how successful the big retailers have been in shifting the paradigm.

It was double time for a Sunday, and time and a half on Saturdays, in the early nineties, when I was working in retail.

And then the retail companies decided that the weekends should be treated like a weekday and slowly chipped away at the overall pay package (whilst successfully lobbying for extended weekend opening hours).

By the late 00’s they’d got that put to bed and moved on to take away their shop-floor staff’s job security (and ability to say no to short notice shift changes) via the imposition of zero-hour contracts.

If it wasn’t (currently) protected by statute, they’d be opening the larger stores on Christmas Day.

Is it the retailers themselves "shifting the paradigm" or did they just move in line with society's shift?

Extra time on Sunday was to compensate for the fact that most people worked m-f and Sunday was a traditionally the day of rest, plus a day of worship in our majority Christian country.

Now very few people go to church on Sundays and people work varied hours so appreciate flexibility in opening hours. If anything for most shops it would make more sense for something like Monday or Wednesday to be a closed day, or, in the case of clothes shops, to be open 12-8pm every day not 9-5.

It seems a bit odd to blame Tesco for flexible working and atheism!

blackberryhill · 18/03/2025 09:52

Another one surprised that anyone was still paid extra for Sundays in supermarket retail. I worked Sundays at ASDA in the early 00s and there was no extra pay for those shifts back then (but maybe it was because I was in Scotland so no Sunday opening restrictions anyway?)

MumChp · 18/03/2025 09:31

JennieTheZebra · 18/03/2025 09:12

NHS wards, especially those that rely heavily on bank/agency staff, really struggle to fill up weekend rotas. Effectively they’re paying, usually, nurses extra to come in on their days off because otherwise there’d be no staff. The alternative is to rota permanent staff to largely work weekends, but that’s a sure fire way to ruin staff morale and lead to people leaving for community jobs which are 9-5, weekdays only. This way you work some weekends and you can pick up some extra ones for more money, it’s a choice.
It’s easy to say that weekends off is outdated but most nurses have family that work traditional patterns and which they’d never see if forced to work every weekend. Do those that think the NHS shouldn’t pay extra for weekends also think that they shouldn’t pay extra for nights? I mean, it’s part of the job you sign up for…

We shouldn't wonder why young people don't sign up for these careers anymore.

Most young people are very aware of choosing a job with proper conditions and pay. And I think it's great that they ask questions. A lot of people are f*cked in their work. NHS was great and fair to work for. Today? Just don't.

fashionqueen0123 · 18/03/2025 09:22

xanthomelana · 18/03/2025 00:00

It’s been on the cards for a while now. It’s going to be interesting to see how many people opt out of Sunday working now there’s no incentive to do it. Everyone is saying it’s not a big thing but they’ll all complain when stores are not staffed properly and they can’t get what they need and have to queue for ages at checkouts. They keep making more money every year yet pay staff less, if they could make billions last year when they paid the premium I don’t see what’s changed.

True.

I worked at Sainsbury’s in the late 90s/early 00s and Sundays were double pay. So I’d often volunteer to do 4 hours as it was easy money. Wouldn’t bother if it was normal pay. One of my friends had a really jammy contract of only working Sundays which the rest of us worked Saturdays. If I had known that when signing up I would have said I could only do Sundays!

Lovelysummerdays · 18/03/2025 09:21

I think the reality is there is a decent supply of workers willing to work for regular pay on a Sunday. If there were less workers they’d be able to command higher wages. This isn’t necessarily true across all jobs. I suspect the more skills you have the higher the price for out of hours labour. My plumber would charge a hefty premium for a weekend call out.

JohnTheRevelator · 18/03/2025 09:18

The way things are going, employees will soon be expected to pay their employer for working for them.

Schoolchoicesucks · 18/03/2025 09:12

Ottersmith · 18/03/2025 08:31

So that workers can spend time with family and benefit from bank holidays just like everyone else does.

But for many people, working on a Sunday means they can juggle childcare - enabling someone to stay home with kids in the week and work the weekend. For others, someone working in say a NT property or restaurant means other families can go and spend the day out together. For lots of us being able to shop on a Sunday helps split chores across the weekend and means we can have a day out on Saturday or Sunday without having to cram chores into a single weekend day.

I don't want to go back to the days when nothing was open on a Sunday. Does anyone really?

JennieTheZebra · 18/03/2025 09:12

LucyMonth · 18/03/2025 07:35

Yes I absolutely would. I had no idea they did get weekend premiums.

I think if you take on a career that involves weekend work you know what you are signing up for.

I worked in an animal rescue centre for 10 years. Weekend work. Retail, restaurants, cafes, pubs, hotels, gyms, emergency services, airport staff, bus drivers, cinema staff, museum staff. There are countless industries that involve weekend work. Tesco isn’t special. It is very, very normal to work weekends for millions of people.

For many people it is a draw as they get time off during the week instead, easier to get appointments, every where is quieter, useful for childcare etc. So you shouldn’t need incentivised to work the weekend. It’s either something you are willing to accept as part of your industry or you work in a different industry.

Edited

NHS wards, especially those that rely heavily on bank/agency staff, really struggle to fill up weekend rotas. Effectively they’re paying, usually, nurses extra to come in on their days off because otherwise there’d be no staff. The alternative is to rota permanent staff to largely work weekends, but that’s a sure fire way to ruin staff morale and lead to people leaving for community jobs which are 9-5, weekdays only. This way you work some weekends and you can pick up some extra ones for more money, it’s a choice.
It’s easy to say that weekends off is outdated but most nurses have family that work traditional patterns and which they’d never see if forced to work every weekend. Do those that think the NHS shouldn’t pay extra for weekends also think that they shouldn’t pay extra for nights? I mean, it’s part of the job you sign up for…

ChrisS36 · 18/03/2025 08:58

Why would they pay extra for Sundays

Iloveeverycat · 18/03/2025 08:56

Sainsburys don't get extra for working Sundays.

BeyondMyWits · 18/03/2025 08:51

Josiezu · 18/03/2025 08:42

It’s not really their responsibility that someone relies on it, there’s no reason someone working an anti social shift on a Tuesday should receive less pay than someone choosing to work on a Sunday.

And they have not paid it to new hires for some time for that reason.

But people who went into Sunday working many years ago because of the enhancement (in their employment contract) and rely on it to pay their bills, have seen it eroded - despite those initial promises - and now removed.
So people working a shift in the week will get a payrise, and those working a Sunday will get a paycut.

People are being treated badly and I find that sad (though not surprising).

I also think it is a bit off that others don't get why it is a problem... having less money at the end of the week - for having put themselves forward/been persuaded to work Sundays for extra money 20 years ago.

Josiezu · 18/03/2025 08:42

BeyondMyWits · 18/03/2025 08:40

I think it is sad.

Just because other retailers don't pay it, doesn't make it "right" or a good thing that Tesco are removing money from people who have come to rely on it over the years.

It’s not really their responsibility that someone relies on it, there’s no reason someone working an anti social shift on a Tuesday should receive less pay than someone choosing to work on a Sunday.

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