Tesco Axes Contract Cleaners in Almost 2,000 Stores

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22 July 2020 | Updated 25 January 2022

From August 2020, existing Tesco Express and Metro store staff will be responsible for certain cleaning duties.

Employees in the retailer's smaller stores will be responsible for washing windows, floors, shelves, fridges and staff break rooms and toilets, according to a report from The Guardian today. 

Duties such as cleaning external signage, pressure washing and removing graffiti will still be outsourced.

A Tesco spokesperson commented that all employees will receive additional training, and that "colleagues will not be forced to perform any role they don’t want to."

"Following a successful trial, we have found that giving our stores more ownership and control over their cleaning results in better and more consistent standards. We will now roll this out to all our Express stores and Convenience Metro stores.”

–Tesco Spokesperson

All Express and Metro Stores to be Cleaned by Existing Staff

Tesco's official statement reads: “Currently we use third-party suppliers for cleaning. Following a successful trial, we have found that giving our stores more ownership and control over their cleaning results in better and more consistent standards. 

“We will now roll this out to all our Express stores and convenience Metro stores.”

Employees have reportedly expressed concern that additional cleaning tasks would be a “psychological blow” when they already feel stretched. 

Colleagues "Will Not be Forced to Perform Any Role They Don’t Want to."

ThisWeekinFM approached the Tesco Press team for further comment on operational details of the cleaning tasks.

A Tesco spokesperson told us: “For our customers and colleagues alike, the cleanliness of our stores has never been more important."

The spokesperson also confirmed that all colleagues will receive training to ensure cleaning standards are the highest they can be, and store budgets will be increased to account for the additional time needed to complete these cleaning tasks. Tesco also expects to invest more hours to cleaning in stores as a result of this change.

The work will be split between all colleagues, and colleagues "will not be forced to perform any role they don’t want to."

Hygiene Anxiety

Raj Krishnamurthy, CEO of Freespace, who implements various occupancy-based cleaning solutions for businesses. commented that hygiene anxiety is a real fear for people:

“Across all industry sectors, from retail to large corporate buildings, COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of providing hygienic workplace environments to ensure good health and wellbeing. Simply increasing cleaning frequencies isn't going to be enough to resolve ‘hygiene anxiety’, plus this tactic will put too much strain on an already stretched workforce in this particular area."

Picture: A photograph of a Tesco Express Store. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 22 July 2020

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