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Tesco recruitment drive leans on Poles for support
Page 10
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Tesco is looking east for more skilled drivers. Jennifer Ball reports.
SUPERMARKET GIANT Tesco is bringing over 100 Polish truck drivers and warehouse staff to work in its UK stores because it cannot find enough British workers to fill its vacancies.
The trial is being run in collaboration with the firm's Polish business.The Poles will work atTesco's Fenny-Lock RDC in Milton Keynes and at stores spread across the South-East.
A Tesco spokeswoman says low unemployment is creating difficulty in finding drivers: "Like many businesses we also face a skills shortage, especially when trying to recruit truck drivers. Obviously the new staff will enjoy the same rates of pay and benefits package as our existing staff. "It is a small trial when you consider we employ about 250,000 people and we won't make any further decisions until we see how this goes." The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) says it will continue its push for vacancies at Tesco's Fenny-Lock Distribution Centre in Milton Keynes to be filled locally. Usdaw national officer Pauline Foulkes says: "The company has given us an assurance that they will always recruit locally first and in this case the 40 workers from Poland had their employment confirmed before Tesco had any indication that the Wincanton distribution centre was closing.
"We will encourage them to fill any suitable future vacancies from those workers affected by the local Wincanton closure."
• Government figures reveal that more than a million Eastern Europeans have visited the UK since EU expansion last May. The Office of National Statistics says 91% CaMC as tourists but the rest intended to stay longer than three months.