Tesco ready to pay back 140,000 people

Britain's largest retailer will compensate current, former staff members up to £40 each

LONDON: Britain's largest retailer-Tesco- is ready to reimburse 140,000 current and former staff members up to £40 ($48.6) each after discovering an error in its payroll systems, according to the company.

The supermarket group said it found the error during an internal review conducted as part of the implementation of a new payroll system. The total reimbursement costs are expected to be 9.7 million pounds.

"The review...found the voluntary contributions made by some colleagues to benefits such as pensions, childcare vouchers and cycle to work schemes, led to errors that resulted in their pay after salary sacrifice not reaching National Living Wage levels," said Tesco.



According to the BBC, the supermarket had checked pay records for the past six years and found that errors had occurred at least once for around a third of existing staff as well as more than 40,000 former colleagues. They added that they would reimburse current employees by the end of March while former workers will be contacted individually for arrangement of their payments.

Meanwhile, Britain's business minister Margot James said Tesco's announcement showed the existing government's resolve to enforce the minimum wage. "It is completely unacceptable for any worker to be underpaid and everybody should check their pay ahead of the national minimum and living wages rising on 1 April," she said.



For employees aged 25 and above, per hour minimum was will rise from £7.20 to £7.50 from next month onwards.

Last month, it was reported that 360 businesses, which include Debenhams, Subway and Lloyds Pharmacy, had failed to pay the statutory minimum wage.