Retail

Asda workers stage protests against 'punitive' new contract


Asda workers have staged protests at stores across the country against a new “flexible” contract they say will leave about 3,000 shop-floor staff worse off.

The GMB union said members would face the sack on 2 November if they did not sign the “punitive” contract, which it said removed pay for breaks and forced employees to work bank holidays.

The supermarket chain, which is owned by the American retailer Walmart, said the overwhelming majority of its staff had signed the contract but appreciated some employees found the changes “unsettling”.

Protests took place outside 12 Asda stores from Brighton to Glasgow on Monday as the GMB called on the supermarket chain to offer staff a better deal.

Outside the Trafford Park store in Manchester, one longtime Asda employee said she would lose £400 a year and eight days’ holiday if she signed the new contract.

“I’ve been here over 20 years and the top and bottom of it is if you don’t sign it [the new contract], you’ve got no job,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I can’t swear, can I, but I feel like I’ve been shit on from a great big height. Loyalty just counts for nothing.”

An Asda spokeswoman said it had consulted with staff on the changes for months and that the 2 November deadline marked the end of a minimum period of notice after which staff would lose their jobs if they did not switch to the new contract.

She said 95% of staff would be better off under the new changes but that those who were not would be given a “transitional payment” specific to their contract.

Handing out leaflets to shoppers, the GMB regional organiser, Giovanna Holt, said the new contracts would mean staff lose paid breaks, have to work bank holidays whether they were contracted to them or not, and impose a four-week notice period where the store can change workers’ shifts.

“People can’t work like that. People have young children, elderly parents, disabled relatives they need to look after. You cannot just drop people at four weeks’ notice and expect people to change their lives round,” she said.

Holt, who worked for Asda for 10 years, said it was an “absolute disgrace” that workers were being told to sign the contract by 2 November or face losing their jobs in the run-up to Christmas.

“This is a good loyal workforce who thought they were part of a family and to treat people like that is just appalling. This is now a minimum wage employer with minimum benefits. And this is a wealthy, wealthy company. It’s an American culture. Everything they do gets reported back into America [and] their culture is being imposed on the company here. It just doesn’t work.”

An Asda spokeswoman said the contract was about “increasing the take-home pay of more than 100,000 retail colleagues” and ensuring everyone doing the same job was on the same terms and conditions.

She said: “We understand colleagues have commitments outside of work and will not be asking them to constantly move the time they work, their days or departments.”



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