Asda is faced with possible strike action after thousands of workers said they were ready to walk out over the company’s failure to make an acceptable pay offer.
GMB union representatives, who represent the workers, are expected to meet after the next pay talks to agree on the next steps in moving to a formal strike ballot after 94% of the warehouse, clerical works and LGV drivers voted in favour of strike action.
The dispute was sparked after Big 4 grocer failed to “come clean” and “disclose” if it is holding back pay rises for its staff members – with inflation running at a ten-year high.
The news comes after the supermarket’s directors pocketed £12.6 million in pay and share-based payments, while the company turned an operating profit of £486 million in the year 2020.
Last week, GMB wrote to Asda asking if it is holding back distribution workers’ pay because of potential future liabilities in a long-running equal pay claim.
READ MORE: Asda’s supply chain threatens strike over ‘disgraceful’ pay rise
The union currently engaged with the grocer to secure equal pay for 40,000 predominantly female shopfloor workers in Asda, who the union say “do not get the same money for the same value work as people employed in the company’s distribution centres.”
“This immense vote in favour of industrial action shows the bubbling anger and resentment among the workers,” GMB national officer Nadine Houghton said.
“They know what they are worth and they feel Asda is trying to take them for mugs.
“Asda workers are risking their lives as this pandemic rages on – our members in the depots lost colleagues to this disease.
Houghton added: “They have kept this nation fed throughout every lockdown, turning up for work day in day out.
“All they are now asking for is a fair slice of the pandemic profit pie which Asda directors have benefited hugely from, money our hard-working members created for the company.
“It’s repugnant corporate behaviour, and workers are ready to strike.”
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4 Comments. Leave new
I have worked for Asda for nearly 25 years& it has gone from being a great company to work for who actually did look after& cared for its colleagues to a soulless one who couldn’t careless less about us. We don’t get anything for a Christmas thank you ( they stopped the £20 gift card years ago). Asda only cares about how much money is going in the till.
I personally have never felt as low as I do now. I work nights and have done for 19 years at asdas but me and the team I work for feel like we overworked, underpaid and under appreciated as everything has been taken away from us and we’ve received nothing in return.
I dont think that the GMB Stewards and the new National Officer, have read the New agreement which was agreed by the union approximately 8years ago properly. Asda offered the workers an interim payment of about £380, and below this wording, it stated that this takes away/and all any industrial action that the workers vote for. So the ballot they done was a waste of time, and as there has not been any other New Agreements that the workers know about, then this is all a waste of time. GMB and the New National Officer need to get there shop in order and read the small details before deciding to ballot.
I’ve been a delivery driver for Asda for the past 11 years now and in that time there’s hasn’t been a single change introduced that has been beneficial to the drivers, we’ve had bonus schemes scrapped, conditions worsen, hours extended and pay has remained stagnant for over a decade. When I started in 2011 I was on around £8 an hour, 11 years later I am on £9.36 yet the cost of everything has increased significantly more than the 15% increase I have received, my broadband alone has gone from £24 to £44, Asda promotes diversity yet in the 11 years I have been a driver, we have had 3 female drivers, 2 of which barely lasted a week before leaving. and the other left 7 years ago. Yet I see other supermarkets with a varied mix of drivers as they clearly don’t expect them to be world class athletes.