Yahoo Finance Lidl to give more than 23,000 front-line workers one-off £200 bonus to say thank you for pandemic work
The discount chain announced the news on Tuesday (Lidl)
(Lidl)More than 23,000 UK workers at supermarket Lidl are to get a £200 bonus in recognition of their hard work during the pandemic.
The German discount chain spend more than £5.5 million issuing the reward to all its shop staff and frontline employees - including customer assistants, warehouse operatives and cleaners - across more than 800 stores and 13 distribution centres.
The company’s 1,800 office-based staff will also receive the £100 "thank you" bonus, which the firm said it is issuing “in recognition of their tireless efforts to keep the nation fed and provide a safe shopping experience for customers up and down the country”.
Christian Härtnagel, CEO at Lidl GB said: “Everyone in the food retail sector has been in the privileged position of being able to continue operating throughout this pandemic. However, it has been an extremely challenging period and our teams have done a phenomenal job in helping to keep the nation fed.
“I am incredibly proud of the dedication and commitment our colleagues have shown and continue to show and this payment is about recognising their unrelenting hard work and thanking each individual for the important part they’ve played in the year like no other.”
It is the latest in a series of publicised offerings to staff from the firm, which also made headlines in previous years for its thrifty practices, such as making receipts as small as possible to save more than £150,000 per annum on paper.
Lidl handed out a £150 bonus to all colleagues in March of last year and announced a pay rise in November.
The new wages, which will come into effect from March 2021, will see entry-level wages increase from £9.30 to £9.50 an hour outside the M25 and £10.75 to £10.85 within the M25.
German-owned discount rival Aldi last week also said it will increase its national minimum hourly pay rate for store employees to £9.55 from February 1, up from £9.40.
Like other supermarket chains, Lidl is currently seeing soaring demand as consumers buy more groceries for home-cooking during the latest lockdown. The company is currently expanding around the UK.
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