Asda has responded to criticism from the GMB Union after the supermarket failed to raise pay for workers in line with other ‘Big 4’ retailers.
It comes as rival grocer Sainsbury’s announced this week that its workers will now be paid at least £11 an hour from next month.
As a result of criticism from the union, major retailer Asda said it would be announcing new pay rates in Q1 for hourly paid staff.
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Currently, employees at the retail giant are paid £10.10 per hour, which is the lowest paying of the big four and one of the lowest paying retailers overall, according to the GMB.
However, Asda said during the last year it had provided two separate increases worth a total of 8% for hourly paid staff. The retailer is reportedly engaging with labour union Usdaw to find a resolution to the matter.
“We have increased retail colleague pay twice during the last 12 months and will confirm our new pay rates for 2023 to colleagues during Q1, following the outcome of negotiations with Usdaw where we have a pay bargaining agreement,” an Asda spokesperson said.
The GMB is now campaigning for Asda to increase pay to £11.50 per hour, and is calling on bosses to provide free food to staff while they are on shift.
“Sainsbury’s and Argos hourly retail colleague pay will increase from £10.25 to £11.00 per hour and from £11.30 to £11.95 per hour in London,” GMB officer Nadine Houghton said.
She added: “Sainsbury’s has also decided to extend free food during shifts for store and depot colleagues by a further six months.
“If it’s good enough for Sainsburys workers, why is it not good enough for Asda workers? Surely Asda bosses don’t think Sainsbury’s workers are somehow worth more? GMB urges them to follow suit – upping pay and providing free food while on shift.”
30 Comments. Leave new
It’s disgusting how the new owners & leadership treat colleagues, current hourly rate is appalling given our competitors actions on pay & conditions. The hourly rate that will be announced will be an insult and not reflective of the cost of living needs of colleagues. Asda publishes how they are supporting the elderly & the never ending list of blue light workers but yet do nothing for their own staff. They should be embarrassed but reality is they don’t care. Cutting off hours, working colleagues into the ground for poor pay! Profit & paying as little as possible to achieve their millions is the only thing that matters!
Worst decision ever to give blue light holders discounts…now EG group workers too. Shows how much they think of their own workforce…they don’t!
They have already given the answer in the fact that ‘pay has increased twice already’ which in my opinion the most it will ever be is to match minimum wage, possibly 10p more. But Asda have also been cutting hours for months now, Xmas in most stores was horrendous as not enough people to cope and if indeed….hypothetically rise rate to £11 this would only cause more hours cuts and possibly jobs. First and foremost Asda need to look after their hourly paid experienced colleagues and introduce a higher ‘key’ rate. You have people with years of experience and capable of doing many jobs being paid the same as introduction colleagues. Where is the motivation for these new colleagues to acquire the same experience?! And on the flip side…..would they leave to gain a higher rate elsewhere?!
I have been working for Asda for 17 years since new owner ship they have borrowed billions and are still buying other companies they are shredding hours managers sold depo off and will carry on
They themselves are building mansion houses for themselves while their work force are struggling to pay their mortgage because they don’t want to pay you night rate
The government itself don’t really care as well as the the redundancy is a weeks wage each year
When you have worked for decades that’s how they get rid of you
Force you in a corner and the law is on their side see the point
Rich people get away with it these new owners are
We think we have freedom but in reality it’s not freedom it’s dictation
Also when contract 6 was forced upon the colleagues.
They said that wages would always be at least £1 above minimum wage.
Forgot to mention they cut the yearly bonus from a promised 800 pounds for full timers to about 100 now, so those pay rises were financed by the colleagues having to sacrifice the bonus.
I’ve been a delivery driver for Asda now for over a decade, the only reason I stay is because it fits in with my lifestyle well. Every year the job changes for the worse, whether its new rules or changes to the job, more/heavier deliveries, greater expectations or just more work over all. Nothing ever changes that is beneficial to us, it’s always detrimental. Now with other supermarkets paying their drivers significantly more (up to £2.65 an hour more) I have to question, why I stay, because it certainly isn’t for the people, Asda Homeshopping go through staff like no bodies business. I see new faces almost weekly.
So I worked for this shower of absolute w@nks for over ten years. Some of the section leaders and managers are not worth the pay they are given yet others are worth a lot more. Store manager was full of sh1t when visits were on. They should just randomly turn up. But once word got around they were at this store then the other stores in the vicinity would go all out to make sure everything was perfect. Not exactly a true reflection on how crap the place is. The pay is an absolute joke. The customers were rude and horrid all the time because Not enough checkout on or cleaners. The waste in the back up was so bad they used to fudge those figures by lying about it all. Not been processed correctly. So much bad things going on yet as long as there figures were ok then that all that matters. Someone needs to open there eyes
Omg this sounds like the store I work at. Clearly they are all doing the same thing. The amount of waste we had at Xmas because no rotation on days and reduction staff didn’t find it all. So instead of reducing it. They asked one staff member to reduce then waste so it didn’t look bad. Why couldn’t they just send it on to people that are desperate for food. Like home less shelters… places like that. We were so disgusted. Also we get loads of staff in once a visit is due yet any other night we are left we minimal staff but get moaned at why we ain’t finished. Place is one big fat joke.
Yup asda pay is pretty bad and conditions are awful (our place is filthy) Ive worked for asda for 8 years and currently only work 2 evenings a week (enough) as I also work for Rowlands pharmacy as a qualified dispenser and get paid £9.90 per hour which is 20p LESS per hour than Asda ‘the lowest paid supermarket’.. now THAT IS BAD
Yes thats correct we have now lost our bonus for this year which was already cut last year to give us the second payrise of £10.10 pH so basically asda aren’t doing anything for their staff.
Yeah there is not a single SHRED of talking on the bonus this year, do you have any official details on the bonus situation for us at asda this year?
It’s on the website that we’ll get the bonus in our february pay but it doesn’t say percentage so we’ll probably all end up with £50. I’d say £50 and a pat on the back but that would mean giving staff members praise for pulling their shitty company through the mud for the last year and we all know they’re sat in their offices inflating each others ego while the hourly staff do all the hard work.
Asda is so bad that the night shift is getting a pay cut forced on them, £500 per month. The ones that are left in my store just don’t care anymore. We’re all looking for new jobs. Problem nobody is hiring at the moment.
Iv worked for asda for 15 years in multiple roles and I can categorically confirm that the company does not care at all about there staff. The only way colleagues get anything nowadays is if asda get bad publicity as a result, so if asda doesn’t match other retailers in pay and working conditions then we need to be screaming from the rooftops, or behind a picket line.
Asda is dead. because they are assets stripping the company down until there is nothing left. They are shitting on the people that work for them. There working conditions are unbelievable. At the end of the day we are expected to put up with this shit. With less staff and no support. What a joke.
ASDA do not care about their colleagues or their customers only about their profit. I do believe this will backfire eventually. I have 18yrs experience of ASDA getting greedier and dropping standards. It is such a frustrating demoralising company to work for poor equipment and not enough of it. Also it is impossible to do a good job due to lack of colleagues in most departments. The bosses should be ashamed.
The 2023 bonus will be paid but later than normal, in March’s pay.
ASDA IS A SHITE COMPANY TO WORK FOR. I FEEL ASHAMED TO WORK FOR SUCH AN AWFUL COMPANY, WHO TREAT THEIR STAFF LIKE DIRT.
Bonus is being paid but what’s not being said is that to make up for the losses on the blue light scheme and the asda rewards scheme that its being deducted from the bonus
The Asda managers know we’re all living paycheck to paycheck. Apparently it was decided earlier in the year that as we’ve had a pay rise our bonus was taken away. So they’ve known all year we’re not to get a full bonus, yet never thought to tell us. A lot of people in my southport store (4585) are fuming.
So we’re possibly to get a 25% bonus, subject to finance approving it. Looks to be in the range of £100 for full time staff, We’d usually get £400 and have gotten close to that the past 8 years I’ve worked at the store. This is after posters were put up when the new owners took over saying we’d be getting £600-£800.
Asda do know we can see their profits and know how well the store has been doing the past few years don’t they?
Absolute joke.
Cutbacks on staff so bad that workers are the job of 5 people, front end staff take all the bad rap and disgruntled customers insults, it’s demoralising, all we can do is apologise and explain about being understaffed. It’s gone down hill drastically. But let’s face it, everyone that works for owners are just underpaid slaves. It will never change.
Ashamed to work for Asda even customers comment why we put up with being the worst paid supermarket while probably one of the busiest certainly more so than Sainsburys. I would not be working there if I was younger but at 64 looks like I will have to see it through. Far from a happy bunny more an exhausted bunny. Shame on ASDA.
Got to agree with of the above comments. When I first started nearly 8 years ago it was fine but slowly gone downhill & has picked up going down once the 2 clowns from Blackburn took over. No one will say anything about a bonus or pay rise. I’ve never seen such a turn over in staff on home shopping since I started. Managers & section leaders have no people skills & have no idea about training new staff. As for the store front & back is disgusting. Open packs of groceries lying around on pallets. Stock rotation is non existent.
Delivery driver two years. Seen so many drivers come and go mostly because of poor pay and level of physical effort expected in lifting, loading and unloading heavier and heavier deliveries. 4 month trial of extra pay for drivers lasted two months as supposedly KPI’s were never attained. Nobody said what the KPI’s were!! Shoddy management, demoralizing, and surprise surprise, more drivers left. Still lowest paid delivery drivers in retail yet supposedly home delivery is described by management as elite source for driving (!?) store revenue and profit… State of vehicles shocking mechanically and hygiene awful.
Asda is going down hill rapidly we pulled them through when it was the coronavirus ,but blue light is given to health care workers who took all the shit when shelves were empty during the pandemic us too if I was mr big balls I’d have given my colleagues 20 percent discount n as for pay rise 10.10 not even minimum wage disgusting and because they think they’re giving you the world with 10.10 an hour they’ve took away the bonus 🤬I have worked at asda for just over 25 years n seen loads of changes but unfortunately not for the better it’s just one big shit show
Asda will have a shock if the colleagues win the equal pay claim as most of the long term staff will stick their fingers up to the management and leave on mass
This bonus we recieve in feb/March will be the last bonus and its been reduced, so we are looking at somewhere around £50-100 bonus. And after this that’s it no more yearly bonus ever, this is and I quote (from the information board near our clocking in machine) “due to the generous pay rise” they are cutting what used to be £300-£600 bonus which is entirely based on sales and the amount of profit the store has made which they post on signs to ‘let the colleagues know how well the store is doing’ and most months it’s several hundreds of thousands of profit and once I saw the store turned over a million in profit yet the same month they will say “they overspent on staff wages”
I understand they need to make profit to buy more stock, to refurbish, to hire staff, to pay the bills, etc but a store turning consistently hundreds of thousands per store across thousands of stores has no leg to stand on and have such audacity to claim the 90p – £1.01 increase an hour is “generous” when they are paying for the increase by taking our bonus away and using that same money to give us our ‘increased pay’.
The treatment of colleagues is getting horrendous, lied to by the store manager about being “over spent on wages” when in fact they had saved over £1000 in one week on wages, not surprised as checkouts are often being run with only 1 person if you are lucky someone from another department will help but those departments are also short staffed.
I love my job or i should say loved, we have no time for customers anymore, as soon as you are done clearing one red light five more have appeared, click and collect is ringing none stop, uber orders coming thick and fast and then you are expected to deal with complaint after complaint of having no one on a till without yelling at them “I AM ONE GODDAMN PERSON”
I hope they realise sooner rather than later that stress related illnesses are an actual thing and they are pretty close to losing the remaining colleagues they have because we can get better pay and better working conditions doing the same job elsewhere
well the next ” how can we save money” is they are going to take the 50p london waiting at the end of this year so they are taking 50p off every hour we work so its a pay cut how is this fair