MPs have attacked Asda for its recent union track record as the GMB gears up for strike action.
Labour and Tory MPs sternly criticised the supermarket in a parliamentary motion that condemned attempts to sack staff who refused to give up trade union rights. The motion, lodged this week, also attacked the role of Asda’s public relations company Portland PR - headed by Tim Allan, one of Tony Blair’s former advisors - in trying to discredit the GMB.
The MPs congratulated the union on its recent legal victory, when an employment tribunal ordered Asda to pay £850,000 to Washington depot workers for illegally using inducements to get employees to give up collective bargaining rights.
The GMB has now taken the first steps towards strike action that could cause widespread disruption over collective bargaining rights at its Dartford depot in Kent.
GMB national officer Jude Brimble said: “Asda pushed the GMB members too far by issuing the unilateral
threat to end the current agreement at Dartford on February 28. I am now going to ballot our Asda members in all its depots for industrial action on a range of issues.”
Lack of bonus payments and rising pick rates in depots, which have concerned the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, are on the union’s grievance list.
Asda is also being taken to a tribunal by the GMB to defend charges of racial discrimination at its Wakefield depot, although GMB organiser Steve Huckerby said that out-of-court settlement talks were progressing well.
Soon after the July 7 terrorist attacks in London, Wakefield depot management told seven workers with foreign-sounding names to produce proof of identity and evidence that they had a right to work in the UK.
In January, Asda paid out a total of £27,000 to 37 workers at its Lutterworth warehouse in Leicester after similar demands earlier last summer.
The GMB has called for Asda to make a public apology. Chris Needham, GMB officer covering Lutterworth, said: “As part of the settlement, they promised to make a public apology. To date they have not done so.”
An Asda spokesman said it had already posted a full public apology, the wording of which was approved by the GMB, on the Lutterworth notice board.
Fiona McLelland & Bill Doult
Labour and Tory MPs sternly criticised the supermarket in a parliamentary motion that condemned attempts to sack staff who refused to give up trade union rights. The motion, lodged this week, also attacked the role of Asda’s public relations company Portland PR - headed by Tim Allan, one of Tony Blair’s former advisors - in trying to discredit the GMB.
The MPs congratulated the union on its recent legal victory, when an employment tribunal ordered Asda to pay £850,000 to Washington depot workers for illegally using inducements to get employees to give up collective bargaining rights.
The GMB has now taken the first steps towards strike action that could cause widespread disruption over collective bargaining rights at its Dartford depot in Kent.
GMB national officer Jude Brimble said: “Asda pushed the GMB members too far by issuing the unilateral
threat to end the current agreement at Dartford on February 28. I am now going to ballot our Asda members in all its depots for industrial action on a range of issues.”
Lack of bonus payments and rising pick rates in depots, which have concerned the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, are on the union’s grievance list.
Asda is also being taken to a tribunal by the GMB to defend charges of racial discrimination at its Wakefield depot, although GMB organiser Steve Huckerby said that out-of-court settlement talks were progressing well.
Soon after the July 7 terrorist attacks in London, Wakefield depot management told seven workers with foreign-sounding names to produce proof of identity and evidence that they had a right to work in the UK.
In January, Asda paid out a total of £27,000 to 37 workers at its Lutterworth warehouse in Leicester after similar demands earlier last summer.
The GMB has called for Asda to make a public apology. Chris Needham, GMB officer covering Lutterworth, said: “As part of the settlement, they promised to make a public apology. To date they have not done so.”
An Asda spokesman said it had already posted a full public apology, the wording of which was approved by the GMB, on the Lutterworth notice board.
Fiona McLelland & Bill Doult
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