Nearly 600 jobs are at risk at Sainsbury’s as the retailer reduces the number of in-store staff trainers.
The supermarket chain, which is buying Argos’s owner, Home Retail Group, for £1.4bn, has begun consultation with 870 training staff about changes to their jobs. Sainsbury’s wants to employ 280 of them as senior trainers who will work across several stores and said it will try to redeploy the rest.
The trade union Unite said it was disappointed at the potential job losses. The national officer for food and drink, Julia Long, said: “This is very bad news for those dedicated workers affected by the planned job losses and Unite will be giving our members maximum support at this difficult time.
“We are severely disappointed as Sainsbury’s seems to have deep pockets when it wants, as it has just forked out £1.4bn to purchase the Home Retail Group. We appreciate that Sainsbury’s has a good record of redeployment of staff in these situations and we will be exploring every avenue to ensure continuing employment for our members.”
Neil Saunders of retail analysis firm Conlumino said: “There is definitely a risk that the removal of these posts could weaken customer service. The benefits of an in-store trainer are that they are on the ground to support training needs and can carefully monitor progress and identify areas that need addressing. They also form a close and personal relationship with the staff in the store.
“Given that service is a critical differentiator for Sainsbury’s this is a risk that the firm will have to manage carefully,” he said.
Sainsbury’s is also consulting with 1,900 night workers about changes to their hours. The supermarket said it no longer needed people to work through the night but would be moving hours to late evening and early morning and that no jobs would be cut.
Sainsbury’s said: “We’ve introduced new learning and development programmes to ensure our colleagues can continue to deliver the very best service to our customers. Following this, we’re now creating a new management role that will provide enhanced training support across a number of stores. This position will replace the existing store trainer role.”
Retailers are looking for ways to save money as they implement the new “national living wage”. The £7.20 compulsory hourly minimum for workers over 25, which came in last week, will rise every year and reach about £9 an hour by 2020.
Retailers will take the biggest financial hit from the changes, at a time when supermarkets are locked in a fierce price war to fend off discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Sainsbury’s is the only one of the big four UK supermarkets experiencing sales growth, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Sales rose 1.2% in the three months to the end of March, helped by new store openings, while Tesco’s sales slid by 0.2% and Morrisons fell 2.4% after selling off its convenience store chain. Asda’s sales slumped 3.9%.
The Co-op enjoyed the strongest pace of sales growth since it bought the Somerfield chain five years ago, with sales up 3.9%.
The latest cuts at Sainsbury’s come after the supermarket cut 800 jobs in its stores last year as part of plans to save £500m over three years. The supermarket group, which also axed 500 head office jobs, in January 2015, cut department and deputy manager positions in some stores.
Sainsbury’s profits slid 18% in the six months to 26 September, the company’s lowest first-half profit since 2010 as it was forced to shut stores and cut prices. The chain now faces the major challenge of integrating Argos after Home Retail Group’s board backed its £1.4bn takeover bid last week.
Asda, Morrisons and Tesco have also cut hundreds of jobs in stores and at their head offices in an attempt to keep down costs. Some staff have enjoyed pay rises before the introduction of the national minimum wage, but that has been offset by cuts to benefits including Sunday and holiday pay or paid breaks.
