Thousands of Tesco team leaders will begin hearing their fate next week, the workers union Usdaw confirmed today, as the supermarket giant presses ahead with a huge streamlining of its store management structure.

The Grocer revealed in January that Tesco CEO Dave Lewis had decide to extend a trial of a new structure first piloted at 12 stores in the East Midlands nationwide, which could see thousands of team leader positions removed.

In a statement Usdaw said that nationwide talks would begin on Monday, with Tesco issuing a statement to say that it would be prioritising colleague whose jobs would be affected. Tesco also revealed that Metro and Express stores would not be included in the cuts.

“Following a pilot last year of a new management structure, Tesco recently announced their intention to introduce a new store management structure in all large stores across the UK and Northern Ireland,” said Usdaw. Tesco have briefed and up-skilled store director’s, group personnel managers, store managers and personnel manager’s on the details of the new store management structure, and the communication and consultation process.

“Tesco will start to brief and consult in stores nationally from Monday 23 February 2015, prioritising staff affected by the change first.”

In a message shared by Tesco with store managers to give to their teams, the retailer said the new management structure would lead to a “much simpler and leaner organisation, with a single – minded focus on customers.”

“Its important that our colleagues hear about these changes at the same time. With half term next week and many colleagues on holiday, we will be starting communication in stores across the UK from 23 February.”

News that the convenience store operation will not be included in the management shakeup comes after The Grocer revealed last week that One Stop Boss Tony Reed had been given a new job overseeing the entire 2,700 store convenience business for Tesco, as part of a new management structure revealed by Lewis.

We also revealed that thousands of head office staff had been given until 25 February to apply for voluntary redundancy, as Lewis seeks to slash overheads by 30%.