Morrisons latest to introduce flexible hours, in HQ shake-up

Morrisons has become the latest supermarket to introduce new flexible working hours, with a new agreement for staff at its Bradford HQ, The Grocer understands.

The supermarket introduced a four-day week for staff four years ago, though its head office staff have been required to work 13 Saturdays a year as part of their contracts.

However, under the new proposals, which come in next month, staff will move to a four-and-a-half-day week, though it remains at 37.5 hours and does not require Saturday working.

Morrisons HQ saw a reduction of weekly hours from 40 to 37.5 in 2021, working nine instead of eight hours a day over four days, plus a six-hour day one Saturday per month.

The Grocer understands Saturday working had not been popular with HQ staff, which includes Morrisons commercial and marketing teams, with around 2,000 staff in total set to be affected by the changes.

It is the latest in a series of changes to management staff at HQs and stores to have been carried out by retailers.

This week also saw Asda strongly deny a trial of a four-day week for store managers had been forced on the supermarket by a crisis in staff turnover.

Over the weekend, the Sunday Telegraph reported Asda had been piloting the move and claimed it came after a report of a 13.9% rise in turnover among retail managers in 2022, which had forced the company to look at new measures for retention.

However, Asda said its trial was part of an increasing trend for retailers to look at more flexible patterns of work. It said its management staff turnover had reduced in 2023 and was not a driving factor.

In February, Sainsbury’s offered its management staff the option of working four days a week, in a bid to evolve its ways of working and increase flexibility.

It said it had been trialling the four-day week for three months, with employees at its head offices in Holborn, Coventry and Milton Keynes, warehouse workers and store managers across its 1,400 stores.