Sainsbury’s shake up puts hundreds of jobs at risk

Sainsbury’s, UK’s second largest supermarket chain, said it is conducting a consultation process with 870 of its store trainers

(Getty Images)

Nearly 600 jobs could be at risk as Sainsbury’s announces a shake-up of roles across its major stores.

Sainsbury’s, UK’s second largest supermarket chain, said it is conducting a consultation process with 870 of its store trainers. The company is creating around 280 new Learning and Development Managers positions and will give affected staff the opportunity to apply for these senior roles. It hopes to redeploy the rest where it could.

Unite, a trade union, expressed “severe disappointment” at the potential job losses, days after the supermarket chain agreed to buy Argos-owner Home Retail for £1,4 billion.

Julia Long, Unite national officer for food and drink said this is very bad news for the “dedicated workers” affected by the cut.

“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,” Long said.

“We are now entering the 45-day consultation period and will be having meetings with management, including asking the company if it has done an equalities’ audit of those affected by today’s announcement,” she added.

Major supermarket chains are seeking cost saving, partly to finance a price war to reverse the loss of shoppers to budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.

Sainsbury’s is aiming for savings of £500 million over three years and has already cut 1,300 jobs over the last year. The company, which trades from over 1,200 supermarkets and convenience stores, has a workforce of 161,000.