Tesco Hartlepool counter staff facing redundancy in cost cuts

The Mail understands the meat and fish counters at the Tesco Extra in Burn Road are to close on May 11 with the delicatessen counter having its hours reduced.

Affected staff were called into a meeting and given the bad news last Monday.

It is understood alternative positions in the store may be sought for affected workers, but if they are not agreeable for staff they will be made redundant.

It is believed around 20 staff work on the store’s counters including the rotisserie which is staying open.

One devastated worker, who asked not be named, told the Mail: “We went into a meeting and just got told Tesco is making a profit, but they have had to make some tough decisions and for Hartlepool that the meat counter and fish counter are to close.

“The deli counter is going to be on reduced hours of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the chicken counter is staying.

“We just looked at each other in the room and felt like we had been run over by a bus.”

It is believed the meat, fish and delicatessen counters at Tesco in Billingham are also to close.

The worker added: “The amount of people whose counters are closing up and down the country, its like a massive cull.

“Married couples who have been there for 38 years, they are getting rid of them.

“It’s awful. There’s no loyalty. I’m having to tell customers and they are gutted.”

In recent years, the retailer has faced increasing competition from value stores such as Lidl and Aldi.

Tesco would not confirm details of changes for individual stores at this time.

But in an announcement last month it estimated that up to 9,000 workers may be affected nationwide, but that it expects up to half could be redeployed to other customer-facing roles.

It said customers are using their counter services less as they increasingly shop in different ways.

The company said: “We will be making changes to the counters in our large stores to ensure that we have the right offer for customers.

“We expect that around 90 stores will close their counters, with the remaining 700 trading with either a full or flexible counter offer for our customers.”