Asda has announced proposals to move all its hourly-paid retail colleagues in England, Scotland and Wales to a new, standardised contract that would streamline the supermarket’s existing six different contract types to one.
In return, colleagues could be asked to agree to work more flexible times and in different departments in their store, as well as forgoing paid breaks.
Similar proposals were recently voted on in Northern Ireland as part of a collective bargaining agreement, where they were recommended for approval by union USDAW and accepted with a ‘yes vote’ at ballot by 84% of USDAW members on a turnout of 87%.
In 2017 Asda launched a new higher pay rate contract to colleagues that offered an increased pay rate of £8.50 per hour in return for greater levels of flexibility. Over 50,000 retail colleagues are already employed on this contract, while others chose to remain on a variety of five other contract types already in place.
Asda’s senior vice president of operations, Anthony Hemmerdinger, said: “Our colleagues do an amazing job every day and we want to continue to reward them with a higher rate of pay, plus benefits such as their annual bonus. 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.
“This proposal is also about increasing our basic rate of pay and aligning the way of working in our stores so that everyone has the same contract, making it fairer to all colleagues and ensuring we can consistently provide the best service to customers.”
Asda has entered into a collective consultation process with colleagues on the proposed contract change. If the proposals are taken forward, they are expected to take effect in late 2019.
Asda estimates that around 5% of its retail staff would be financially worse off. It proposes to provide a transitional payment to these employees, which it intends to agree during the consultation period.
