Tesco workers have reportedly been given Quality Street chocolates instead of a cash Christmas bonus this year - despite the cost of living crisis.
One supermarket employee, who remained anonymous, claimed this was the second year in a row they had received a box of the sweet treats.
Tesco said it has never given employees a regular guaranteed cash bonus at Christmas. This year, it said it had instead doubled staff discounts in the run up to the festive season.
The unnamed shop worker said the Quality Street was given to him at the discretion of his store manager.
He told the Guardian : “They’re certainly penny-pinching and trying to drive costs down.”
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The Guardian first reported the news this weekend after speaking to a Tesco employee (Bloomberg via Getty Images)Tesco paid its staff a 10% Christmas bonus in 2020 for their hard work over the year. In previous years, it has given out shopping vouchers.
Tesco, which is the UK's largest supermarket chain, agreed in 2019 to scrap its yearly cash bonus, usually paid in March to instead be replaced with a higher pay rate.
This agreement with unions representing Tesco's shopfloor staff was noted in the group's 2022 annual report.
In the last year, the big four supermarket chain has increased the pay rate of shopfloor staff twice, first in July when it increased the hourly wage to £10.10 per hour and again in October when it was upped to £10.30.
Tesco promised to invest £200million to uprate its staff's pay and in the last year, the total pay rise was around 8%.
The Guardian reported that "special bonuses" were given to shopfloor workers in April, May and June 2020 at the height of the pandemic in the UK when stores were very busy.
The paper also reported that a bonus staff received in December 2020 was made to “recognise their exceptional effort during the peak Christmas trading period”.
This year, Tesco said it had doubled the shop discount it usually gives to staff to 20% in the run-up to Christmas.
A spokesperson from Tesco said: "We have never given a regular cash bonus at Christmas and it is wrong to suggest that we have replaced one with chocolates.
“To help colleagues with their Christmas shopping this year, we doubled our colleague discount to 20% in the run-up to Christmas – one of many benefits available to our colleagues, on top of the near 8% increase in base pay we invested over last year.”
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