Supermarket Morrisons has asked employees at its Bradford head office to return to working five days a week.
Morrisons introduced a four-day working week for its head office staff in 2020, with employees required to work Saturdays once every four weeks. This was then changed to a four-and-a-half-day arrangement following staff complaints about working on the weekend.
Staff will still have the option to work both from home and the office during the week despite the change. Individual flexibility arrangements will continue to be possible where needed by the employees.
A Morrisons spokesperson said: “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 employees to move their working pattern from 4.5 days to a full five-day week. This will support us further to deliver improved availability and service for our customers.”
Other retailers have also scaled back flexible working, with Asda scrapping its four-day week pilot last year after reported exhaustion from the 44-hour compressed schedule. John Lewis has also announced its commercial teams must spend at least three days weekly in offices, stores or with suppliers.
Morrisons’ employee benefits include a recognition programme, discounts for staff and their family, life assurance, flexible, voluntary and salary sacrifice benefits, a health cash plan, wellbeing support through Vita Health, access to Aviva’s digital GP service, addiction treatment, and financial education support through Salary Finance.
Its family-friendly benefits include full pay for the first 26 weeks of maternity and adoption leave, up to four weeks of paternity leave within 52 weeks of the birth or placement, up to five days of paid neonatal leave per cycle for prospective mothers undergoing treatment, and up to two days for partners, and an additional week of leave for every week the baby spends in neonatal care up to the original due date for a maximum of 12 weeks.
