It’s a kick in the teeth for Kingswood and Bristol Wilko keyworker high street heroes as the company cuts their sick pay.
The discount high street chain remained open throughout the pandemic thanks to the hard work and dedication of their employees. But Wilko has repaid this loyalty by announcing devastating cuts to the sick pay of their staff.
Currently Wilko employees are entitled to up to four occasions of sickness on company sick pay before reverting to the first three days of sick leave unpaid.
But from the February 1, if a Wilko employee has a single day of sickness they will have no further entitlement to company sick pay for the next 12 months.
Many of these workers are on minimum wage, low hours and also have no entitlement to statutory sick pay which will leave them with no income if they become ill.
Dan Norris said: “This is no way to treat shop workers especially during a pandemic. Wilko should be rewarding their commitment – but instead they’ve threatened to slash their sickness benefit.”
Mr Norris also encouraged Wilko workers to join their trade union.