Food & Travel Update and Key Worker Status

Summary:

1. Thank you to all colleagues

2. Business update

   • All food stores open

   • Travel busy

   • Recruitment drive 900 people

3. Actions required

   • Key worker status

   • Pay review April 2020

 

1. Thank you to all colleagues

I know how busy we all are, but it is important that you are kept updated about your Society. I hope you’ve managed to find the time to watch Phil’s video message from yesterday in which he gave a good overview of how we’re getting on. That can be seen here.

He mentioned in that video that Helen Wiseman, our president, specifically asked him to pass the thanks of the Board to all our colleagues for the fantastic effort that you’ve all put in,  and the way that every one of us has responded to this particularly difficult situation. Again, I’d like my thanks to that – and you can see again at the bottom of this just how much the help you have given is appreciated by our members and customers.

 

2. Business update

Our Travel team has been supporting up to 1,000 queries a day from customers and members providing guidance, support and assisting them in rearranging travel plans where needed. We have now taken the decision to centralise this operation to help us to better manage the volume and continuity of these enquiries, while also enabling us to deploy scores of colleagues to support our food stores and ensure that we are continuing to provide vital goods to our communities during a period of unprecedented demand.

All our Childcare nurseries remain open wherever possible, and we have taken many additional steps to ensure the safety and well-being of the children, our colleagues and parents arriving at the nursery. The Government has now published a list of critical roles where childcare provision will continue to be provided if needed. Provision will also continue to be provided for those classed as ‘vulnerable’. We will remain open to provide a service to those – whether for existing parents or new ones. We’re also looking at extending the offering we can make to help members and parents over the coming weeks. If you require childcare provision from any of our nurseries, or know people in critical roles that do then please contact us at info@ccc.coop  Where parents are not eligible to access childcare provision under the current Bill or choose to keep their children at home to care in isolation, we have committed to suspending fees charged from 1st April. There’s a bit more on this that may be relevant to you individually below.

We are looking at adjusting the opening hours in some of our food stores to ensure we can continue to offer service to members and customers. We’re also looking at complementing our normal range with local suppliers to keep shelves full.

We’ve also had a great response to our fast track recruitment activities in food which has attracted literally hundreds of potential colleagues, many of whom we are looking to start with us over the next few days.  We’re ramping this up to cover some of other groups in the next few days.

 

3. Actions required

Key worker status

Further to the Government’s announcement that schools and educational settings are closing in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Government has asked that, where possible, they remain open for children whose parents are employed in key worker roles.

As such, The Midcounties Co-operative is a community-owned co-operative society, which operates several businesses. Those parts of our business which are dependent upon colleagues within the Government’s critical workers list are: Food retail, Post Office, Healthcare, Childcare, Funeral care, and Utilities.

Therefore, any colleague who is currently working in one of those businesses, this includes any Travel colleague who has been redeployed, or work in our support services which are integral to the continued operations of those businesses, fall under the Governments guidance on Key worker status.

Letters, specifically identifying you as a key worker are being sent to site managers to hand to you. We are working to get these to you as soon as possible and will be available before Monday. If you don’t get one of these for any reason, please speak to your line manager.

If you do have a child in a nursery, school or college and you want them to continue to attend, you should show the letter to the appropriate person at the school once received.

 

Pay review April 2020

The pay review for this year has now been agreed. The agreement with the union can be read here and I’m sure you’ll agree is welcome news at this time.

It’s worth reminding you that whilst the agreement notes the removal of premium pay, we’ve suspended that decision for the time being. That’s been actioned in recognition of the valuable contribution that our colleagues are making at this challenging time.

 

Read some great feedback from some of our Pharmacy and Food customers:

      

 

           

 

 

John Street

 

Coronavirus Co-ordinator