What do we want to change?

Colleagues are able to take Emergency Volunteer Leave if they have an ‘Emergency Volunteering
Certificate’ from a relevant Health or Social Care Authority (these are issued to those who have suitable
medical or social care skills and experience).

‘EVL’ can be taken once every 16 weeks and is taken in periods of either two, three or four weeks. The
leave is unpaid, but in Tesco we have agreed to pay the colleague until any claim for loss of earnings has
been settled by the UK Government. The colleague remains in employment for the duration and will
continue to attract their normal service related benefits, for example retirement savings plan
contributions as if they had been at work as normal.

Colleagues on EVL may be able to claim some compensation for loss of earnings and travel from a UK-
wide compensation fund, but this is yet to be confirmed by the UK Government. In the interim the
colleague should be coded as a paid absence; once they have been paid from the compensation fund, we
will recuperate the amount paid.

Colleagues on EVL are not eligible to receive the COVID-19 Recognition Bonus for the weeks when they
are volunteering.

Why do we want to change?

To enable our colleagues with medical and social care skills to support the UK response to the COVID-19
pandemic in the national interest without experiencing short term financial hardship.

Additional Information
Our community roles policy remains unchanged which covers time off for
• Special Police constables
• Retained Firefighters
• Mountain Rescue and Lifeboat Crews
• Ambulance Crews
• Civil Contingency Reaction Forces, and
• Other community roles.

This can be found on Colleague Help.

We have for the duration of the pandemic extended our provision for Special Policy Constables from one
week’s paid leave to three weeks’ paid leave where a colleague is being asked to sign up to more shifts.

3.4 Criminal Record Checks for Dot Com Drivers:

What it is now?
According to our Criminal Records Policy; If you are applying for a Customer Delivery Driver role there will
be a conditional job offer that you will be required to complete a criminal record check. This is to assess
suitability to represent Tesco in a customer’s home. Any unspent convictions will make an applicant
ineligible for this specific role. You may start in this role once your EVI (early vetting indicator) has come
back, however only as a buddy to another driver for training and must not be left alone.

Amended People Policy – Covid-19, Version 12.9, Page 20 of 36 –5th January 2021
What do we want to change?
All job offers for Customer Delivery Driver roles will continue to be a conditional job offer, subject to a
suitable criminal record check but whilst this is being processed providing the colleague has completed
the following:

• New starter induction,

• Fulfilling Safely and Brilliantly Every Day (FUSBED) training and
• buddying period

If the manager and the colleague are both confident that they are ready to drive on their own, they are
allowed to deliver on their own but only to the customer’s doorstep. They should not enter any
customers house.

Once the check result has been received, the normal policy position applies (see the Criminal Records
Policy on Colleague Help).

Why do we want to make this change?

To significantly and speedily increase capacity so we are able to deliver shopping to Clinically Vulnerable
customers. By not allowing non-DBS cleared colleagues to enter the customers house we hope to
sensibly mitigate any short-term risk whilst we await the clearance result.

3.5 Pregnant colleagues who are classed as Clinically Vulnerable:

What is it now?
Normally pregnant colleagues continue to attend work unless they are absent due to Sickness Absence
and after one working week signed off by a Doctor with a Fit Note.

What do we want to change?

From the 17th August 2020 we are offering pregnant colleagues the option of an Occupational Health
Assessment;
• where a colleague is classed as ‘A’ (lower risk), they will be able to continue working following our
normal safe distancing practices;
• where a colleague is classed as ‘B’ (medium risk) they will continue working following safe
distancing practices with additional controls in place;
• Where a colleague is classed as ‘C’ (higher risk), they will remain off work on Maternity Suspension
(Using the Holiday code for Maternity Suspension as detailed in your Covid-19 Payroll Support
Guide). Please note: Category C pregnant colleagues can sign the declaration and choose to
return to work. This must be the colleague’s choice and we should not put any pressure on them
to do so.

Please follow the COVID—19 Supporting Our Colleagues To Return To Work’ pack, this will guide you
through the support measures and appropriate controls.

Why do we want to change?

We want to support higher risk pregnant colleagues with continued time off work, by taking account of
earnings over 52 weeks, to ensure that maternity pay more accurately reflects the actual earnings of the
colleague and not just their contractual pay.

Additional information:

Amended People Policy – Covid-19, Version 12.9, Page 21 of 36 –5th January 2021
You do not need to complete any suspension paperwork for Higher Risk Pregnant colleagues on Maternity
Suspension.

3.6 Length of Temporary Contracts

What it is now:
Normally the maximum length of a Temporary Contract is 12 weeks (or up to 52 weeks where they are
covering a named persons maternity leave or lifestyle break). Due to the nature of Covid 19 and the need
for temporary resource over a longer period it was agreed to extend this period to 43 weeks.

What do we want to change?

We are now furthuer extending the maximum length of a temporary contract, so that temporary
colleagues taken on because of Covid-19, can be extended until June 2021.

Why are we making this change?

There is a continuing need for temporary resource to cope with the changing situation with regard to
Covid-19, so rather than ending the contracts of the Temporary Covid colleagues and recruiting new
temporary colleagues, we want to be able to extend these temporary contracts.

Where you are extending the temporary contract, you should write to the colleague sending the
‘Temporary colleague extension to contract letter’, this can be found on colleague help.
https://colleague-help.ourtesco.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039186811-Temporary-Colleague-Letter-
Pack

Amended People Policy – Covid-19, Version 12.9, Page 22 of 36 –5th January 2021
COVID-19
4 Changing Terms & Conditions

Our Approach:
Throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic, we must maintain operations and meet customers’ needs. We aim to
be fair and consistent when making temporary but necessary changes to our colleagues’ job roles,
working hours or location to achieve this. Our commitments are to:

• Be open and quick to communicate the need for changes

• Ensure that colleagues aren’t financially worse off because of the changes
• Recognise that some people may find it harder to make a change, for example those with
children, and offer help and support
• Confirm any temporary changes in writing that will last for longer than one week as soon as
possible, this must be within four weeks.
• Treat everyone fairly and without discrimination in line with the protected characteristics
detailed in the Equalities Act. (Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Marriage or Civil
Partnership, Race, Religion or Belief, Sex or Sexual Orientation).

General principles:
Any changes that we are asking colleagues to make must be reasonable, taking into account the
colleague’s circumstances. Where colleagues have already completed an Availability Form, due to other
business changes, this should also be considered.

Ideally, we must aim to give a minimum of 24 hours’ notice of a change in job, location or working hours,
or longer whenever possible. In extreme circumstances, where this isn’t possible, we must tell people by
the end of their shift the day before the change is expected to take place (which may not be a full 24
hours before the change).

During this time, we should offer help and support, and be flexible. Some people may have arrangements
to make, such as changes to childcare provisions or travel arrangements. We could support them by
allowing them to make telephone calls from work or letting them leave early to meet with their child’s
carer. We could help those with travel difficulties by setting up lift shares with other colleagues.

If a number of colleagues are needed to change their job, shift or location, we will consider volunteers
first (provided they are able to do the required job).

We must ensure that we do not discriminate against any groups or individuals when making temporary
changes to terms and conditions. Nobody should be disadvantaged because of their gender, age, ability,
race or religion. If we are asking them to make temporary changes which compromise them, this could be
considered as unfair. Some practical examples of this could include:

• For religious reasons, a colleague does not work on a particular day of the week, so they can
attend worship, which is accommodated within their normal working hours. We should not
enforce a change of hours, which imposes upon this practice.
• A colleague who has a disability and is trained and able to perform a role, but may not be able to
perform a different role for a temporary period.

Pay:
Where the temporary role is a lower rate of pay than the person’s normal job, or the change means they
will lose shift premiums, they would maintain their existing pay rate and premiums during the change
(their overall pay should remain the same). When we ask someone to perform a role with a higher rate of

Amended People Policy – Covid-19, Version 12.9, Page 23 of 36 –5th January 2021
pay, or with higher shift premiums, their pay will increase to reflect this for the hours they are
performing the role (see the Pay Policy on Colleague Help for more information).

Job role changes:

We may ask people to temporarily change their job, provided they are capable of performing the change.
Amongst other changes, this could include covering for your Manager, working in a different department
or moving to another function (e.g. distribution or office colleagues going into stores). Temporary job role
changes must continue to comply with health and safety rules - for example Fork Lift Truck drivers must
have up to date training certificates, and we would not move someone into this role otherwise.

Location changes:
The temporary closure of Stores or Distribution Centres, or unmanageable absence levels during the
Pandemic could result in the need to move colleagues between locations at short notice. Apart from the
most critical job roles, Head Office colleagues would move out to Stores or Distribution. The key
considerations are:

• We do not expect people to extend the length of their working day as a result of the change. If
the travelling time to the new location is longer, the hours of work will be reduced to reflect this.
• Any additional travel expenses will be paid by Tesco (although where a large number of people
are being moved, it may be cost effective to provide transport instead of travelling expenses).
• Changes that are within a colleague’s agreed existing availability.

Changes to working hours:

In most cases we would not expect people to make a significant change to their working hours, unless
they volunteered to do so. For example, it would not be reasonable to ask someone who works
permanent evenings or nights to move to daytime work. However, based on the circumstances we face
at the time, we may decide that for operational purposes, we need to introduce changes that colleagues
find difficult, but are likely to be less disruptive to individual’s commitments outside of work, for
example:

• Head Office colleagues moving into stores changing their working days from Monday to Friday, to
include weekend work with a day off during the week
• Reasonable changes to shift patterns in stores or distribution, to cover colleague absences.

Managing changes for absent colleagues:

We must inform absent colleagues who may be affected by job / location changes during a National
Disaster/Pandemic. This could be people who are off sick or longer absences such as maternity leave. If
we are expecting someone to work at a different location or in a different job when they return from
absence, we will:

• Contact them whilst they are absent to explain the situation (for example, all Head office
colleagues are moving out to stores, or a store has temporarily closed) and tell them that we will
agree any changes that affect them when they are fit to return to work. Give them a contact
name and number of a Manager.

• Arrange to meet wherever is most practical when they are fit to return to work. At this stage we
would give 24 hours’ notice of any temporary change to job, hours or location.

Refusal to change:

If someone refuses to make the temporary change to their terms and conditions, we will arrange a
further meeting with them. We should advise them that their contract allows the company to move them
Amended People Policy – Covid-19, Version 12.9, Page 24 of 36 –5th January 2021