Frontline staff at Central England Co-op will be receiving face visors as part of the society’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This follows other measures at the society to keep customers and colleagues safe, including social distancing, providing gloves and hand sanitiser and installing over 1,000 checkout screens. Wearing face visors will not be compulsory – the decision will rest with individual staff members who work in food stores and petrol stations.
Central England runs over 260 food stores and petrol stations across 16 counties, employing over 6,200 colleagues across its food business. The retailer has recently hired an extra 1,000 people to cope with increased demand. Over 150 security guards are also helping in-store staff manage queues.
Last month the society announced it would reward its frontline employees with a Covid-19 bonus. Staff working across its stores and funeralcare business will receive one week’s extra pay in their June payment and see their employee discount double to 20%, which will be effective until the end of June 2020.
Chief executive Debbie Robinson said: “Nothing is more important to us all at Central England Co-operative than the safety of our colleagues and customers.
“We’re closely following government advice in our approach to social distancing and have rolled out a range of new measures for our stores that now includes face visors for colleagues if they want to wear one.
“We continue to ask all of our customers to co-operate with these measures to keep us all safe and allow us to continue to serve our communities.”
