Demands have been made to increase the wages of those who work in Asda stores in London higher, due to the cost of living. Staff cannot afford to shop in the Asda supermarkets they work in, according to the GMB Union
It comes as GMB Union demonstrated outside the Sutton branch of the supermarket giant on Friday (November 4). Wages at least need to be increased to £11.50 per hour for staff to cope during the cost of living crisis, MyLondon reports.
It is consulting its members on whether it should ballot for possible strike action. Union organiser Rachael Baylis said: “Staff are concerned about the cost of living, they can’t afford to shop in the stores that they work in.
“We are demonstrating in Sutton because GMB is consulting ASDA members on whether they want to ballot to strike”
Nationally, the union is calling for the wage base rate to be increased from £10.10 an hour to £10.50 or £11.50 with London weighting which it said is in line with other supermarkets.
Asda said it increased hourly rates this year from £9.36 to £10.10 and is yet to make a pay offer for 2023.
An Asda spokesperson said: “We understand the impact the cost of living crisis is having on our colleagues and have made two separate pay investments this year to increase retail colleague pay by nearly 8per cent – taking the rate to £10.10 per hour.
“We were also one of the few supermarkets to pay colleagues a bonus this year, worth an average of £413 for a full-time hourly paid colleague. We will confirm our 2023 pay rates to colleagues in the New Year.”
The union also wants to see a £1.50-an-hour premium for delivery drivers reinstated which was withdrawn at the end of October.
At the time, a spokesperson told The Mirror: “In July, we began a trial in a small number of stores to pay a discretionary supplement to delivery drivers in order to assess what impact this has on colleague recruitment and retention. This trial was scheduled to end in December, but will finish at the end of this month, because it has not delivered the desired results.”
