British supermarket Sainsbury's to hike in-store staff pay by 15 percent

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's said it would increase the base rate of pay for its staff working in stores by 15 percent this year, spending an extra 100 million pounds ($138 million) on a plan that will also simplify the number of job roles. Britain's second-biggest supermarket said it was making the changes to secure the best staff in a highly competitive environment. As part of the changes it will pay a base rate of 9.20 pounds, compared with the current 8 pounds.

It will reduce the number of in-store roles to five from the current 22 and remove colleague bonuses and paid breaks. It said it would fund the additional investment through ongoing cost savings across the business.

All of Britain's big four food retailers - market leader Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) , Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - are trying to finance price cuts and improve their stores to compete with discounters Aldi and Lidl, who are still winning market share. ($1 = 0.7231 pounds) (Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Kate Holton)