12000 Asda workers facing the sack
 

I cant believe what I have just seen on sky news about the Asda contract dispute, 12000 refusing to sign new terms and they've been given till 2nd nov to sign them or they are out.

I seriously thought them days were gone!

I haven't researched it all but know the issues have been rumbling along for quite a while, I am retired so don't have to worry about my job but over the years I have had my fair share of what I consider to be injustice so I will 'vote with my feet' and will know longer shop at Asda.

I'm an ex Asda colleague who worked for them for almost 13 years and in that time experienced things going from bad to worse with constant cutting of hours and piling more and more work on far less of us and expecting better results.
One example I can give is on the department I was on there used to be 9 of us on a Friday evening which eventually dwindled down to 2 and when one of us was off the other was left on their own but the same amount of work was expected.

The new contract being forced on us was the main reason I left along with 4 others on my department.
I didn't stand to lose as much as some colleagues will but wasn't prepared to sign my life over to Asda for an extra 79p an hour.
Since I left in July I've seen on FB quite a few people leaving many of them having worked there in excess of 10 years.

Last week colleagues refusing to sign the new contract were being given leaflets on how to apply for new jobs and being told you're going to need these.
So glad I don't work for them anymore.

The difficulty with these stories is that no one gives us all the facts.

I saw it on the news a couple of months ago and they had a copy of the threatening letter that the employee had been sent, basically said sign the new contract or leave, the terms and conditions on the new contract were poor compared to the existing ones.

As mentioned, if they sack the people Ill stop shopping there.

I work at Sainsburys, & we were told the same when we had to sign a very similar contract last year.

Unfortunately I was/am not in a position to leave & nor were most of my colleagues, so we had to sign.

They will just lay off more staff if people stop going there.

Asda is owned by Walmart who operate similar employment practices in the US.

it happens in every organisation private or public sector. It's unfortunately part of life. Companies/Organisations can't stay static for years and years with no change and expect to keep pace. I guess if you don't like it you go and work for someone else.

And that's another reason not to self serve.