A Tesco boss has said new workers’ rights laws must not hurt growth. Tesco says it has gained market share from rivals by cutting prices on thousands of items but warned the new Labour Party government to work with retailers. Ken Murphy, the chief executive of the UK’s biggest supermarket, said he was keen to use a planned consultation on the wide-ranging employment rights bill, announced by the government in July in the wake of the General Election victory.
He wants to “make sure that whatever the government decides to put forward has the intended consequence of stimulating productivity and growth and protecting workers at the same time”, Mr Murphy has today said (October 3). READ MORE Met Office and BBC Weather speak out over -8C Arctic snow blast reports Tesco faces new rules on zero-hours contracts, a better deal for new parents, day-one protection against unfair dismissal, and statutory sick pay from the first day of illness. Murphy said Tesco was “preparing for a good Christmas ”.
He said Tesco would have more goods for sale than last year as it was seeing a “relatively positive picture” in customer sentiment. "We see customer sentiment improving ahead of Christmas, and we expect more customers to go for a special and fun-filled Christmas,” he said. He said shoppers were showing “a willingness to spend a little bit more to treat themselves”.
He explained: “We’ve been working really hard to offer our customers the best possible value, quality, a.