Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has revealed it will roll out a £25 million package this autumn to help ensure its lowest-paid workers can afford to eat and pay their bills this winter.
From the beginning of October, 127,000 workers will see their hourly pay rise by 25p to £10.25, whilst in London the rate of pay will increase from £11.05 to £11.30.
It is the second pay rise staff will have received from the company in a year, following on from a 5% increase this spring.
As well as increasing staff pay, the company has also announced it will see store workers given free food during their shifts, with £5m set aside to provide toast, soup and porridge in staff rooms.
Colleagues will also see theirin-store discounts raised from 10% at Sainsbury’s and partner store Argo’s, to 15% and 20% come Christmas time.
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Between the move to better support staff, and a two-year plan to try and keep prices low for consumers, the company has made the decision for profits to take a hit.
Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “Every day I am hearing from colleagues who are really feeling the pressures of the rising cost of living,
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“That’s why we are doing everything we can to help our colleagues as they face rising bills and living costs this autumn. This is the first time we have given two pay rises in the same year.”
“We had a debate over whether we should leave this until next year or bring forward some of this now, given the challenges of the autumn and winter ahead,
““We have 127,000 people that get up every day, often in the middle of the night, to get our stores and operations ready for customers. We need to support them as we go into this winter period. Therefore we made the choice to bring forward this pay increase to now.”
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Sainsbury’s is not the only company choosing to sacrifice profit in order to ensure its staff can afford to eat and heat their homes this winter.
Employee-owned company John Lewis has revealed this morning that it is “forgoing profit” to help its partners and employees through the winter.
Dame Sharon White, the partnership’s chairman, said: “No one could have predicted the scale of the cost-of-living crisis that has materialised, with energy prices and inflation rising ahead of anyone’s expectations.
“As a business, we have faced unprecedented cost inflation across grocery and general merchandise.”
She added: “We are responding to the cost of living crisis by supporting those who need it and by stepping up our efficiency programme.
“We are forgoing profit by making choices based on the sort of business we are, led by our Purpose – Working In Partnership For A Happier World – by helping our Partners, customers, communities and suppliers.”
Meanwhile, Parliament has been suspended until Wednesday 21 September, the day before a further suspension is due to allow party conferences to take place.
The official government petitions website has also been frozen “until further notice” preventing people from sigining existing campaigns or creating new petitions for consideration in the House of Commons.
Feature image – Sainsbury’s
News
Brewdog’s beer hotel in Manchester has closed with immediate effect
Daisy Jackson
The ‘beer hotel’ operated by Brewdog in Manchester has closed with immediate effect, as part of the Scottish brewery’s £33m sale.
A whopping 38 Brewdog bars around the UK have closed, resulting in hundreds of job losses.
As well as the beer hotel known as DogHouse in Manchester, which was home to a large bar and rooftop terrace, the Oxford Road brewpub known as the OutPost has also closed.
The DogHouse Hotel on Fountain Street had a range of boutique bedrooms, fitted with features like beer fridges in the shower, beer taps in the room, guitars, record players, and pet beds.
Just 11 pubs have been retained in the rescue deal, including the Brewdog bar on Peter Street in Manchester city centre.
The brewery has been bought by US beverage and medical cannabis company Tilray for £33m, a sale which includes its UK brewery operations, brand, and a handful of pubs.
Yesterday, Brewdog announced all of its bars would be closed for the day to enable staff to attend staff meetings.
Administrators confirmed yesterday that 484 jobs had been lost in the sale, with 38 bars closing.
Unite, the union which represents thousands of hospitality workers, said it is ‘appalled’ at how Brewdog staff have been treated during the sale.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a devastating day for Brewdog workers. Nearly 500 lost livelihoods while yet another corporate deal is stitched together behind closed doors.
“Brewdog workers built this brand. They deserved respect. Instead, they were treated as disposable pawns. Unite will not rest until our members have legal and financial justice.”
Unite national lead for hospitality Bryan Simpson said: “The way in which senior management have conducted themselves throughout this sales process has been nothing short of a national disgrace – with workers being given no information about the company’s plans or their futures.
“For the CEO to tell workers that they were redundant with immediate effect, on a conference call with only 25 minutes notice, has echoes of P&O and is deplorable. Unite will be ensuring that our members receive everything they are legally entitled to.”
Brewdog was founded in 2007 by friends James Watt and Martin Dickie.
Council approves £1 billion budget to ‘improve Manchester’ after 14 years of Government funding cuts
Emily Sergeant
Manchester City Council has officially approved a £1 billion budget for 2026/27.
After 14 years of funding cuts and ‘unfunded pressures’ from 2010 to 2024, which saw Manchester among the hardest hit places in the country, Manchester City Council says that its financial position has improved this year due to ‘fairer funding’ from the current Government which overall reflects the city’s needs.
For the first time this year, the Council’s revenue budget exceeds £1 billion (£1.045 billion, to be exact.)
This leaves the Council able to invest even more in supporting residents’ priorities, and ultimately begin to build back some of things which were previously affected by austerity.
As well as continuing to support those who are considered to be most in-need in the city, this current 2026/27 budget also makes a series of investments in measures – which the Council says will make ‘visible improvements’ across the city.
Some of these measures include £5.13m towards ‘ significantly enhancing’ street cleaning services across the city, more than £1.7m to boost the maintenance of public spaces, especially parks and green spaces, and almost £1m to further crack down on flytipping and littering.
This year, there’ll also be one-off investments of £1.1m improve road, pavement, and path surfaces, and £500,000 to increase pavement and footpath gritting in local centres.
The Council has approved a £1 billion budget to ‘improve Manchester’ / Credit: Chris Curry (via Unsplash) | Manchester City Council
Elsewhere, capital funding will continue to be used to build the Council, social, and ‘genuinely affordable’ homes that the city needs, as well as invest in local high streets and district centres across the city.
“Manchester is an incredible city which we are all proud to call home,” commented Cllr Bev Craig, who is the leader of Manchester City Council.
“We’re seeing record levels of investment in our neighbourhoods and communities, more council and social homes built than for decades and stronger economic growth than anywhere in the UK.
“But we believe that Manchester can be even better, and that’s what we’re determined that this budget will help achieve – a city where everyone can have a good home, a good job and a good life in an well cared for, invested-in neighbourhood.
“That’s exactly where the extra funding available to us in this budget is being focused.”
Georgina Pellant -
15th September 2022 
