Tesco has said its paid maternity leave will rise from 14 weeks to 26 weeks while pay for shop floor workers will rise by 3 per cent from January 1st, 2025.
Tesco Ireland’s personnel director Maurice Kelly said the maternity leave policy change matches the company leave to the statutory leave benefit, “up to now we would have paid 14 weeks and now we are moving to the full 26 weeks”.
It is part of the supermarket chain’s €14 million investment in benefits such as adoptive leave, paternity leave and other family measures in 2025, the company said,
Fully paid adoptive leave for employees who have been working at Tesco for over a year will increase from 14 weeks to 24 weeks. Fully paid paternity leave at the company will go from one to two weeks as long as the person has been working at Tesco for more than six months.
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“In 2022, we made the step to invest for the first time in maternity leave and adoptive leave” marking the start of the €30 million investment in employee benefits, Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said the company wants to support people “during major life events” and these increases in family leave demonstrate that. The company employs 13,500 people across the country.
Outside of family leave, hourly pay for people who work as customer assistants in stores and in warehouses in the firm’s distribution centres will rise by 3 per cent from January 1st, 2025.
This measure means, on average, someone working in Tesco will be paid €17.61 an hour from January 1st, 2025, “ahead of the proposed new living wage due to be introduced in 2026″, the company said. The national living wage is €14.75 in Ireland, according to livingwage.ie.
Tesco has introduced free virtual GP care, enhanced its employee assistance programme and increased the number of discounts available to employees through its clubcard scheme in the last number of years, the company said.
The clubcard scheme allows people who have worked at the company for over 6 months – and with a contract worth over €2,000 each year – to get 10 per cent off their shopping, a monthly 15 per cent discount off shopping at certain weekends and 20 per cent off products during biannual events.
Tesco Ireland said earlier in November it recorded a total sales figure of €3.3 billion in the year ending February 2024, a 9.4 per cent rise on the previous year.
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