Morrisons will now proceed to change the pension contributions policy: Currently 5% from the employer and 3% from the employee; to 3% from the employer and 5% from the employee. There will be a transitional period of 4% each. Morrisons will also shortly withdraw the option for hourly paid employees to step up to a matching 5% contribution.
 
Alongside the pension changes the company has decided to reduce life cover, again for hourly paid employees only and end the bonus paid to all employees after 5, 10, 15 and 20 years’ service, only retaining the 25 year award.
 
The company claims they are continuing to invest in staff in other ways and have announced improvements to the colleague discount, maternity pay and adoption pay, neonatal leave, paternity leave, flexible working, along with new fertility leave and carers’ leave policies.
 
Darren Matthews – Usdaw National Officer says: “After a series of consultation meetings with Morrisons, it is deeply regrettable that they are pressing ahead with proposals to seriously reduce the terms of the pension scheme. The company claims that these changes are due to upcoming Government reforms, despite the fact that there has been no actual timetable announced for these changes. As such we do not believe that Morrisons need to make these changes and we are not aware of any other retailers who are looking at similar reforms.
 
“While Morrisons are making some minor improvements to other staff benefits, the loss of the Long Service Award on every fifth anniversary will negatively impact thousands of Morrisons staff. This is a change that we were neither consulted on nor advised of ahead of the announcement.
 
“We are angry and disappointed that Morrisons has not accepted any of our counter proposals and we will be looking at every measure available to us to persuade management to review their position and come back with a fairer offer.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion