During this boom time for certain companies since the Covid-19 pandemic, an increasing number of them have been resorting to the ‘fire & rehire’ practice, whereby employees are forced to quit their jobs and sign new employment contracts for the same positions, but with less favorable working conditions. However, the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland’s supreme civil court, has just ruled in favour of the Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) and temporarily blocked Tesco (supermarket chain) from resorting to this practice at its Livingston distribution site pending a judgment on the merits.
According to the Usdaw union, Tesco had demanded that their 290 employees (approx.) at its distribution site in Livingston sign a new employment contract before 13 February, which might have cost each of them between £4,000 (€4,587) and £19,000 (€21,788) in annual wage losses. However, following an appeal by Usdaw, the Scottish court temporarily blocked the group’s policy by prohibiting it from “unilaterally withdrawing entitlement to retained pay and/or terminating the contract in order to re-
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