Supermarket chain Morrisons axes hundreds of staff as it slashes costs across retail team

Staff impacted by the cuts work in roles across customer experience, employee engagement, recruitment and payroll, according to reporting by The Grocer.

The move comes after Morrisons chief executive Rami Baitiéh lashed out at the “avalanche of costs” hitting business following October’s Budget, and comes on the same day that Sainsbury’s slashed 3,000 jobs across its business.

A spokeswoman for Morrisons said: “We have recently carried out a review of our People structure to ensure we are offering our stores and sites a timely and consistent service.

“We are therefore proposing to remove the roles of regional people manager, store people manager and case specialist from our structure, meaning colleagues in these roles are being placed at risk of redundancy.

“The new structure will consist of a number of new central roles to support our supermarkets directly along with central HR support and additional employee relations roles. Before any final decisions are taken, we will undertake a minimum 45-day consultation process.”

Morrisons managed only 0.4% sales growth over Christmas, according to the latest grocery market share data from Kantar.

The supermarket is set to publish its fourth quarter and full-year results next Thursday.