SUPERMARKET staff have expressed their frustration over working conditions as new rules make social distancing "almost impossible under the circumstances".

Workers at Sainsbury's Hedge End have told of their concerns as new working hours and rules mean that staff will be cramped together in aisles, making it hard to keep socially distanced amid the pandemic.

For staff who work as online shopping packers, new rules mean that times have changed for as and when shopping is released to be packed.

This prevents staff from entering certain areas at earlier times, and is causing large groups to gather in narrow aisles as they try to fill quota.

Picking times in the chilled zones have now been amended and changed to 4am, preventing staff from visiting these zones earlier, which leads to large groups of staff rushing to get the work done.

Now, a letter has been written to managers of the store requesting that the new rules be changed to ensure that staff can keep safe.

It states: "This is preventing staff across departments to maintain social distancing. We are facing far too many people down aisles, even when an aisle is skipped and returned to, it is still too busy."

The letter added that "maintaining the required IPH while keeping socially distanced has become almost impossible under the circumstances".

It continues: "We are still currently in middle of a pandemic and I am not willing to put my health and that of my colleagues and our families at risk; that is simply not being taken into account."

One worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Daily Echo: "The letter was written because for us to achieve their expectations we have to completely throw social distancing out the window.

"Even though management say that social distancing is high on the agenda, they will call you into a meeting if you don't reach the target in time.

"These new hours mean that the shopping is all released as the same time, which makes all of the aisles really busy because everyone is rushing to get the job done.

"It's annoying, and everyone knows that nothing will be done about it. There's a lot of anger."

He added that he was unsure if management have acknowledge the letter.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues is of vital importance to us.

"We manage all our shift patterns to ensure that all colleagues are able to social distance and throughout the pandemic we have implemented a range of measures to keep our colleagues safe.

"These include strict social distancing processes in all our stores, additional cleaning, hand sanitiser stations and PPE.”