ASDA boosts staff pay to £8.50 p/h

Asda has today announced that it has offered all of its 135,000 store colleagues in Great Britain a pay increase to £8.50 per hour from October 2017 as part of a new contract.*

The new contract offer, which Asda colleagues can choose whether they want to accept or not, offers one of the highest rates of hourly pay within the supermarket sector. It is also £1 per hour higher than the Government’s National Living Wage increase due in April 2017.

As well as benefitting its colleagues, Asda’s customers will also benefit from the new contract offer. Colleagues who choose to move to the new contract will also have greater levels of flexibility in their work patterns to make sure more colleagues are in the right place, at the right times of day to meet their customers’ needs.

This means that colleagues could be asked to work in different parts of their store, or work different days or hours depending on when customers shop in their store most.

As well as an increased rate of pay and agreement to flexible working, other changes within the new “Your Choice” contract offer are:

• Agreement to work Bank Holidays if required by their store (or take as annual leave)
• 28 days annual leave, including Bank Holidays
• Change in the ‘night shift window’ and increase to night shift ‘premium’
• A move to all breaks being unpaid

All of Asda’s other non-pay benefits including; colleague discount, pension, sharesave and bonus remain unchanged in the new contract offer. Other geographic and role premiums will remain.

Asda is also maintaining its commitment not to use zero hours contracts and colleagues will retain guaranteed minimum hours. Whilst the new contract will require colleagues to be flexible, fair and reasonable notice will be given for any changes to rotas, and consideration will be given to those with care requirements outside of work.

Asda has calculated that 95% of current colleagues will be better off if they choose to move to the new contract type – some by over £1000 a year. All new colleagues joining Asda from today will automatically be offered the new contract type, with an increased rate of pay coming in to play on 8th October. Those colleagues who do not wish to move to the new contract are able to remain on their current terms and conditions and all Asda colleagues will move to the increased National Living Wage on 1st April 2017 regardless of their decision around the Your Choice contract.

Asda’s Senior Vice-President of People, Hayley Tatum explains; “Our colleagues have always made Asda special. We want to be the best we can for our customers, which means not only investing in our products and prices but critically, we also need to invest in our people.

“Our colleagues help our customers every day and we want to offer them a rate of pay that recognises the amazing job they do.

“Our current employment contracts have evolved over decades. They mean we have different colleagues on different terms and they don’t give our colleagues the level of flexibility our customers need to meet their changing needs. Our customers shop in different ways at different times and they expect us to deliver them the same great level of service whenever they visit us.

“This new contract will also mean that colleagues can gain a broader level of experience across their store, which will in turn give them better opportunities to progress and develop their career in retail.

“This new contract offer is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our colleagues and we hope that as many colleagues as possible choose to accept it.” 
Asda has a partnership relationship with the GMB, including GMB representatives within its stores.

The GMB’s General Secretary Tim Roache commented; “These new flexible contracts will help to ensure job security, ensure those accepting them are on the same terms and - best of all – ensure that people will earn more money as a result. The new contract offer involves quite a few changes, but as it’s voluntary, this allows colleagues to choose whatever suits their circumstances best.”

*Asda’s colleagues in Northern Ireland (except Belfast Asda Living) are subject to a collective bargaining agreement on pay and terms through USDAW. The current agreement is due for annual review in October 2017. 

Image :  JuliusKielaitis / Shutterstock.com 

Source : ASDA Press Release
http://corporate.asda.com

To advertise on the Insight DIY website and download our media pack, click here.

Interested in pricing intelligence? Manually tracking retail prices? There really is a much easier way. Just contact us here.

Sign-up for our weekly newsletter here.