GMB is the recognised trade union in ASDA, with over 6000 members and growing. Back up by some 100 trade union reps in our region, located at ASDA stores and distribution centres, ready to help with the support of the admin team at our Oldham office under the leadership of Senior Organiser Giovanna Holt.
ASDA Pensions
Pension contributions are deferred wages and give colleagues an opportunity not to struggle in later life. They show what an employer thinks of its employees.
The current ASDA pension doesn’t compare well with direct competitors; Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op all contribute more into their employees’ pensions.
ASDA is a large and very profitable company which can afford to retain the current step up scheme for hourly paid colleagues. Life cover should be retained a 4x pay.
ASDA colleagues deserve better than minimum pay and minimum pensions.
GMB will be responding to the consultation and campaigning to retain and improve the ASDA pension scheme
ASDA Equal Value Claim
The GMB Trade Union, working with Solicitors from law firm Leigh Day,to bring this historic equal pay case for GMB members against employers ASDA.
In October 2016 the claimants won the first part of their equal pay claim against supermarket giant Asda – the tribunal concluded that workers in Asda’s shops, who are mainly women, could compare themselves to male workers in Asda’s distribution centres.
Asda had argued that because different departments ran the shops and the distribution centres, and as there were different methods for setting pay, that no comparison was possible.
In the October judgment the employment tribunal dismissed Asda’s claims and agreed with the claimants that both sets of workers were employed by Asda and that the pay for all workers was controlled by Asda’s executive board, and overseen by their parent company Wal-Mart.
Asda appealed the tribunal’s October decision on ten different grounds. All were unsuccessful.
The Honourable Mr Justice Kerr concluded today that the employment tribunal had been correct in saying that shop workers could compare to the distribution workers:
“I find no lack of rationality or perversity in the judge’s reasoning […] the judge’s overall conclusion that the terms were common in the statutory sense is not impeachable.”
Chris Benson, Head of the Employment and Discrimination Department at Leigh Day, said:
“Asda continues to appeal every point available to them, rather than focusing on paying men in the distribution centres and women in the stores equally, but judges at every level have been adamant that the claims can continue.
“After yet another defeat, we hope that Asda take this opportunity to reflect on the merits of the claims, and concentrate on why they pay men more than women for jobs of equal value, rather than trying to stop the claims going ahead at all.”
