‘Tesco in Dagenham employs local people’ says supermarket after migrant worker claims
Tesco's distribution depot in Dagenham - Credit: Archant
A Labour minister has backtracked on his claims Tesco favour eastern European workers, after the supermarket insisted it had employed 350 locals at its Dagenham depot.
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant had been due to say that Tesco had moved a distribution centre from Kent to Dagenham, where, he claimed, “a large percentage” of staff were “from Eastern bloc” countries and wages were lower.
The chain does not have a depot in Kent and it is thought he was referring to the Harlow depot in Essex which closed shortly before the new centre in Dagenham opened around five weeks ago.
Tesco hit back at Mr Bryant’s claims, which were extracts of a speech he released on the weekend and had planned to make today.
A spokesman said: “It is wrong to accuse Tesco of this. We work incredibly hard to recruit from the local area and have just recruited 350 local people to work in our Dagenham site.”
You may also want to watch:
In response Mr Bryant, who also accused clothes chain Next of using cheap migrant labour, said he fully accepted that the two companies “indeed often go the extra mile to try and recruit more local workers”.
Speaking today Tesco said it paid the same rate to British and EU workers and claimed it had “one of the best pay and benefits packages in the industry.”
Most Read
- 1 Second blaze breaks out at White Horse pub in Chadwell Heath
- 2 Dagenham primary scoops second mental health award
- 3 More than 100 Covid dead at Queen's and King George this week
- 4 Station Parade traffic curbs get green light
- 5 Letters: Covid rules, tenants' manifesto, Streetspace, help RAF veterans and support children's charity
- 6 More than half of people in Barking and Dagenham may have had Covid, data shows
- 7 More than 100 attend first session of gangs awareness workshop run by detective
- 8 Appeal after shots fired at house in Dagenham
- 9 Rapid Covid-19 test site for people without symptoms open in Dagenham
- 10 GPs roll up their sleeves to support colleagues at Queen's Hospital
One Tesco worker who lives in Dagenham, but did not want to be named, said there were a large number of Eastern European workers at the depot, although he was unable to say whether they lived in the local area. But on social networking site streetlife.com residents said they knew of a fair few local people who had got jobs on the site.
Around 120 employees were transferred from the Harlow depot to Dagenham, said Tesco.
