This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Asda has been accused of planning to cut the pay of 3,000 supermarket staff, under proposed changes to employee contracts that will end paid breaks.

The supermarket confirmed last week that consultations were taking place to simplify terms for hourly paid workers and increase the basic rate of pay to £9 per hour.

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Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, has claimed in a letter to Asda’s chief executive, Roger Burnley, that staff involved in the process were likely to be up to £500 worse off a year.

The loss of paid breaks, an end to premium pay and shortening of night shifts, would hit staff wages, McDonagh said, after a meeting with Asda’s senior director of public affairs, Chris Lowe.

Approximately 2,700 staff would lose up to £500 per year, with a further 300 harder hit, she claimed in the letter, which she tweeted on Tuesday.

McDonagh, who has a large number of constituents who work for Asda, wrote: “For these staff, £500+ is a huge amount of money and would have a significant impact on their livelihoods. I welcome any increase in basic hourly pay – but this must not be used to disguise a significant pay cut for 3,000 of your most longstanding staff.”

The proposed changes would reduce night shifts to five hours, from 12am to 5am, she said.

The new contracts would increase the basic rate of pay from £8.21 per hour for all retail employees, and would still include the benefits of an annual bonus, colleague discount, sharesave scheme and pension. However, staff will be asked to work more flexible times such as on bank holidays, while breaks would no longer be paid.

McDonagh raised concerns over this flexibility and said while some might welcome the change, others would find it extremely difficult.

Responding to the original letter, Burnley said: “As our customers change the way they shop, we need to ensure that we have the flexibility to change with them in order to remain competitive.

“Although 50,000 of our colleagues are already on this contract, in the interests of fairness and to achieve the necessary level of flexibility we need all of our colleagues to be on the same terms. In return for this, we propose to increase the take-home pay of over 100,000 colleagues. This proposal represents an overall investment of at least £80m.”

The GMB union, which represents Asda employees, last week raised concerns over the plans to change contracts, calling for negotiations.

Asda said the changes would bring it in line with industry standards.

Anthony Hemmerdinger, Asda’s senior vice-president for operations, said: “As our customers continue to change the way they shop with us, we also have to be prepared to change to meet their needs, and a key part of delivering great service is having the right colleagues in the right place at the right time, which is what this contract aims to achieve.”

Asda has entered into a consultation on the proposals, and the contracts could take effect towards the end of 2019.

It comes after Asda’s prospective merger partner, Sainsbury’s, made similar changes to its contracts last year, eliminating paid breaks but increasing the base level of pay.

The Competition and Markets Authority is shortly expected to publish Sainsbury’s and Asda’s responses to its provisional findings, before the regulator’s final report, which will be published by 30 April.