Dozens of Asda workers and a life-size cut out of boss Manjit Dale staged a protest today [Tuesday] outside Asda Bedminster in anger at asset stripping of the supermarket.
Under TDR Capital, Asda’s private equity owners, millions of hours have been slashed from the shop floor as the company desperately tries to service its debt mountain [2],
leading to health and safety issues, dirty stores and declining standards.
In Asda Bedminster alone, GMB estimates approximately six per cent of store hours have been cut during the past two years.
ASDA’s shop floor workers – who are predominantly women – are owed billions of pounds in back pay through their equal pay claim.
In the Bedminster store this amounts to £2.2 million owed to current and previous ASDA workers.
Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said:
“This is daylight robbery of a much-loved British institution with Asda workers and customers paying the price for TDR Capital’s financial engineering.
“TDR Capital are behaving like robber barons and fast becoming the unacceptable face of UK capitalism.
“GMB will not stand by while Asda workers are forced to do more work with less hours and declining health and safety standards.
“The billions of pounds owed to these workers through their equal pay claim grows by the second too.
“Figures released by GMB today show the impact that cutting hours is having to your local Asda and how much the workers in your store are owed through their equal pay claim.”
