Asda: a multi-billion pound company which gives with one hand and takes with another

Asda: a multi-billion pound company which gives with one hand and takes with another

Next time you’re doing your shopping spare a thought for the people in our supermarkets who are a very important part of your shopping experience.

At the moment it’s staff at Asda (or colleagues as the people at Asda like to call them) who are being tempted with a little raise in pay for the price of saying goodbye to paid breaks, night shift pay and bank holiday pay.

Yes, for a little more money (though Asda calls £1 per hour over the living wage a generous pay rise) they find themselves, and everyone who will join this supermarket giant after them, that working conditions have been further eroded. 

It says on the Asda’s website that moving to what they call Contract 6 is voluntary, but the GMB has plenty of stories of people being forced to sign this voluntary agreement or face dismissal.

Basically Asda holds all the cards and the workers hold none. If ever we needed to be in a trade union, this is the time. Something has to be done to give workers a say in their working conditions. Right now it’s in a downward spiral where companies can basically set the terms and tell staff they can take it or leave it.   

Most of the workers affected are women who are already low paid and many need flexibility to care for family members. 

Scott Dickinson Deputy Leader of Northumberland Labour Group said:

”I fully support the rallies the GMB is holding today to get Asda to come back to the negotiating table and work out a fair deal for its workers. 

It seems that the richer a company is the less it wants to share its success with the people who work for it. Strange that, as those very people have contributed to the eye watering profits Asda is making.”