Union wins Tesco ‘fire and rehire’ battle

Shop workers’ union USDAW has won a Supreme Court battle against Tesco over the supermarket chain’s “fire and rehire” plans. In 2007, Tesco offered staff at distribution centres that were closing increased “retained pay” so they would relocate. However, Tesco went on to remove this retained pay by either offering staff a lump sum to replace it or terminating their contracts and rehiring them without the increased salary. USDAW said retained pay had been described as “permanent” in workers’ contracts, so should be ongoing. Tesco, however, described the pay as a “contractual mechanism” open to employers.