M&S makes major Boxing Day change for first time in five years

Marks and Spencer has made a change to its Boxing Day working rules in a move that will impact thousands of staff.

All employees will have to work at least one day out of 26, 27 and 28 December, according to internal documents seen by the Guardian. For the past five years, M&S has asked for volunteers to work on Boxing Day.

The change mean about a quarter of store staff will now work on Boxing Day alone, according to the Guardian, who also reports that staff will be required to book the day off as holiday if they don’t want to work.

• Nationwide issues £56 alert to customers
• Urgent 'do not eat' warning issued as popular crisps recalled over health fear

All large M&S stores will stay closed on the Boxing Day, but the retailer is understood to want more staff in to get shops ready to reopen on December 27.

It is understood that more than 40% of permanent and 30% of seasonal M&S workers did not work one of the peak days. The Guardian claims staff must also be available to work 22, 23 and 24 December, in the run-up to Christmas.

Jayne Wall, operations director for M&S, told the newspaper: “Christmas at M&S is very special and we are grateful to our hardworking colleagues who make our stores great places for our customers to shop.

“Like most retailers, we always have some colleagues in our stores and depots on Boxing Day to help reset. However, this year we will have more colleagues working than previously so we are in great shape to welcome customers on 27 December.”

M&S started keeping its stores closing on Boxing Day in December 2020 to say thank you to staff for their hard working during the Covid pandemic.

Last year, M&S said it kept stores closed “in order to give our colleagues a much-deserved extended break with their family and loved ones”.

It has been reported that the changes were introduced in March, before the cyber attack in April. The supermarket revealed the cyber attack is expected to cost the company around £300million.

The retailer first noticed “suspicious activity” around its IT systems during the Easter weekend. The incident affected some payments, including contactless, while click and collect orders were impacted as well.

Its logistics and distribution systems were also disrupted, resulting in some empty shelves in stores. Customer data, which could have included names, email addresses, addresses and dates of birth, was taken by the hackers.

Because of this, it is advised that shoppers take extra caution if they are contacted by someone who claims to be from M&S. In an email to shoppers, Jayne Wall, operations director at M&S, said there is no evidence that this data has been shared.

The data also does not include useable card or payment details, or any account passwords.