Retail organisation Home Bargains is to reward its 22,000 employees with two weeks’ extra pay to thank them for their hard work.
In April 2020, Home Bargains announced that employees required to self-isolate due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic will receive up to two weeks’ pay. The organisation will now extend this payment to all employees employed before 22 March 2020, who have not had to self-isolate. Staff will receive the one-time payment in November.
In addition, the organisation will award all employees an extra day of paid holiday on 26 December to further reward employees and support their wellbeing during the festive period. It will also close its stores on 24 December at an earlier time of 5pm, rather than 9pm.
These initiatives follow the 10% pay increase that was awarded to store staff in April to recognise employes for dealing with the uncertainty and increased demand for products during the first UK lockdown.
A spokesperson at Home Bargains said: “We want to recognise how hard our staff have worked throughout some very challenging times and allow them to relax and truly enjoy the break safely with their loved ones.
“Home Bargains is a family-run organisation, and we know the importance of being together at Christmas time, now more than ever. Our employees work tirelessly to keep all our stores running smoothly no matter what and this is our way of saying thank you to all of our staff for their hard work and commitment.”