Morrisons orders head office staff to work full time
Morrisons has ordered staff working in its head office back to their desks five days a week as the supermarket battles to revive its fortunes.
The supermarket is understood to have told its employees based at its headquarters in Bradford that they must work a full five-day week after abandoning a policy which allowed staff to work compressed hours.
Previously, staff were required to work 37.5 hours over four and a half days under a flexible working week pilot which the supermarket kicked off in 2020.
The decision to revert back to five day weeks, which came into force this month, comes as bosses step up a drive to reinvigorate the supermarket as it loses customers to rivals including Aldi.
Rami Baitiéh, who took over as Morrisons chief executive in late 2023, has been spearheading a turnaround effort. Last week, the supermarket said sales grew 4.2pc to £3.9bn in the 13 weeks to April 27, versus a year earlier.
Mr Baitiéh said the figures showed it had 'bounced back strongly' after cyber issues in November. However, data from Kantar showed Morrisons' share of the grocery market dipped to 8.4pc in May compared to 8.6pc a year earlier.
The head office changes are expected to help Morrisons cope with mounting competition from rivals as they step up a price war.
Both Asda and Tesco have said they are expecting profits to take a hit this year as they invest heavily on price cuts.
A spokesman for Morrisons said the head office changes would improve customer service and make sure its shelves are better stocked in stores.
They added: 'In the context of a relentlessly competitive UK grocery market and widespread increased cost pressures, we have taken the difficult decision to ask our head office colleagues to move their working pattern from 4.5 days to a full five day week.'
Staff will still be allowed to work both from home and the office during the week, and individuals may be able to work flexibly if they need to do so.
It marks the latest shake-up of Morrisons' office working policy. In 2020, the supermarket introduced a four-day working week for head office workers, saying the change would 'make Morrisons a place where more people will want to join and stay'.
Under the scheme, head office workers were asked to work on Saturdays once every four weeks.
However, last year, Morrisons said it was changing its requirements following complaints from staff over having to work over the weekend. As part of the update, head office staff switched to a four and a half day week and were not asked to work any Saturdays.
Morrisons' rivals have also scaled back flexible working policies since the pandemic. Last year, Asda scrapped its pilot after managers said a 44-hour week over four days trial left them exhausted.
Domestic & General, a household appliance specialist employing 3,000 people, said it had received similar feedback from staff following a test of a four-day week.
However, a four-day working week policy has received support from some in the Government, with Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, previously saying: 'If you can deliver within a four-day working week, then why not?' The Government later said this would not be part of its policy plans.
Meanwhile, last year, the UK's first medical trial of a four-day working week suggested that there could be benefits to compressing hours.
In the study, conducted by the University of Sussex, the policy was found to make employees happier and healthier.
However, the company involved in the trial, Thrive, opted against adopting a four-day week full-time after its business suffered. The study found that the policy created some problems 'at a business level, particularly when it came to providing customer service'.
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