GMB Union has started a ballot of tens of thousands of Asda workers in a dispute over pay.
The ballot which opened today (4 November) and is set to close in a months time comes as Asda has been named as the current lowest paying of the Big 4 grocers at £10.10 per hour, 40p less than Aldi.
“Asda’s retail workers are now seeing their hourly rate of pay slip to the bottom of the pile – again,” GMB national officer, Nadine Houghton said.
“Other companies see the need to protect staff from the cost-of-living crisis by offering increased pay rises and staff discounts. It’s time Asda bosses took a leaf out of their own book and invested in staff, instead of further debt leveraging Asda to expand their empire.”
A spokesperson for Asda told Grocery Gazette: “We understand the impact the cost of living crisis is having on our colleagues and have made two separate pay investments this year to increase retail colleague pay by nearly 8% – taking the rate to £10.10 per hour.
“We were also one of the few supermarkets to pay colleagues a bonus this year, worth an average of £413 for a full time hourly paid colleague. We will confirm our 2023 pay rates to colleagues in Q1 next year.”
In July, Asda increased pay to 120,000 of its shop floor colleagues to £10.10, while many other retailers have also looked to support staff during the cost-of-living crisis with pay increases.
At Sainsbury’s, its colleagues received an autumn pay increase for the first time, bumping hourly rates from £10 to £10.25, while store and manufacturing colleagues at Morriosons saw a minimum 2% increase to £10.20 in October and at Tesco the basic hourly rate of pay has increased by 20p to £10.30.
At discount grocer Aldi its store assistants received a minimum of £10.50 per hour from September and at Lidl, entry-level rates were increased from £10.10 to £10.90 as of 1 October.
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It is the repulsive nature of big corp. But could be remedied in various areas.when you have greedy people at the top nobody has any chance and the business will eventually topple. Result massive job losses.
Asda only did the 2nd pay increase because of bad press.. the 10.10 they gave wasn’t going to be given till April 2023..
It’s absolutely disgraceful, a multi million pound company paying £10.10 a hour, especially to there delivery drivers. They are putting there licence on the line for that. they should be a shamed of them selves.