SUPERMARKET giant Tesco announced thousands of job cuts nationwide and plans to end 24 hour openings in many stores.

But Scottish workers in Peebles shouldn't panic just yet.

A spokesman for Tesco told the Peeblesshire News: “The Tesco Superstore in Peebles won't be affected by changes to trading hours."

However the spokesman declined to comment on whether any staff would be made redundant or see a cut in their working hours.

The spokesman added: "We’re making some changes in a number of our stores to help us run them more simply and deliver the best possible service for customers.

"We understand this may be disruptive for some of our colleagues and where there have been changes to a colleague’s role we will be working really hard to ensure they are fully supported.”

The Tesco Superstore branch, on Dovecot Road, Peebles, serves hundreds of customers from around the Borders each week.

On the 'Very Little Helps' online forum, used by many Tesco employees, a number of claims were made by people who said they worked for the supermarket firm.

Some said that night-shift workers were having their weekly hours cut from 37 to 22.

One wrote: "I'm a single mum with two kids as well. Totally devastated. Used to work on days. Not long went to nights. Can't see me sleeping tonight."

Another said: "Nights still safe in my store, but non food aren't. Feel terrible for my colleagues that are affected. Think it'll come to us all eventually."

Another wrote: "How is it fair that some stores are cutting the night crews and others are free to stay as they are!! Just do it across the board in interest of fairness instead of screwing people over and upsetting them."

Another said: "Although not unexpected, I'm absolutely livid at the cold and callous way in which the Company have treated long serving loyal members with exemplary records. It's impossible to console those in shock, angry with tears in their eyes. The restructure was bad enough, but with no full time prospects and a lifestyle balance thrown out the window these lovely people are now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea."

In a message to staff, Tesco chief executive Matt Davies wrote: "Earlier this year, we announced some changes to help us run some of our stores a little more simply, while also improving the shopping trip for our customers.

"As part of this work, I wanted to let you know that this week we are announcing changes across many of our large stores.

"This includes changing the time we replenish our shelves from nights to the daytime or twilight, and the reduction in trading hours in some of our 24-hour stores.

"In some stores, it also involves bringing together different customer service desks so that shoppers can get everything they need in one place and simplifying a lot of the tasks – such as the way we approach our General Merchandise operations."

The move comes just weeks after nationwide department store chain, BHS closed all stores across the country, resulting in hundreds of job losses across the retail sector.