Tesco in talks with Irish staff over possible redundancies

Tesco is seeking to cut the number of departmental managers working across its branch network the Republic.

The retailer would not confirm reports that as many as 70 roles may be affected by the restructuring.

It also denied the move had anything to do with revelations this week that it had overstated its half-year profit forecast by £250 million.

The company said it was in negotiations with Irish staff in relation to possible redundancies.

“Following a recent review, a small number of roles in our stores are changing in order to ensure that we have more colleagues on the shop floor helping customers,” a spokeswoman said.

“We are in early stage discussions with some of our departmental managers in stores to see if any wish to be redeployed to other roles or whether any would wish to apply for voluntary redundancy.”

The company said staff were also being offered the option of moving from full-time to part-time employment.

Tesco operates 146 supermarkets and smaller stores in the Republic, which employ 15,000 staff in total.

Typically, there are at least five departmental managers working under the general store manager in the bigger outlets.

“With over 2.5million customer transactions per week and 15,000 employees, we keep the structures of our business under constant review to ensure that we offer the best possible service to customers,” the spokeswoman said.

Tesco’s revelation on Monday that it had overstated its profit forecast for the first half of the year by £250 million wiped nearly £2 billion off its stock market value.

Sources said the company had mis-reported in its accounts the costs of “waste”, which is out of date food, and “shrinkage”, which is stolen or unaccounted for product.

Along with the UK managing director Chris Bush, three other senior executives were suspended after the error was uncovered.