ASDA UPDATE FOR GMB MEMBERS FROM ANTHONY

Thanks again for all your support during what's been another really busy week. I know a lot of information has come your way so thanks to you and your teams for reacting so quickly.

You'll have seen that Roger wrote to our customers this morning with information about how we're keeping our colleagues and customers safe during this time. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for everything that you've put into place so quickly to make sure our stores are safe.

Here are a few points to update you on today:

Putting in place effective social distancing measures continues to be at the forefront of our planning and we will always look for new ways to keep our colleagues safe. Tonight I'd like to share with you some new social distancing measures we're about to implement, along with other key updates.

Social distancing – Welsh law

We are aware of the new law which has been brought in by the Welsh Government on social distancing and I just want to reassure you that the guidelines which we have in place are sufficient. Please ensure you refer to the social distancing guidelines that are in this evening's coronavirus update and the updated enforcement officer guide on WalmartOne for any more information.

Social distancing – floor sticker roll out plan

Over the weekend, we were testing new floor stickers to support social distancing at key service areas. This has now been signed off to be implemented across all stores. City are currently working through the store by store detail and work is due to start on Monday and will be completed over a two week period.

Social distancing – managing queues in car parks

We‘ve created a car park external queue management plan guide to help you safely extend queue barriers to separate customers and moving vehicles. We are also asking you to identify and isolate an overspill area within your car park for customers to queue during peak periods.

Self-isolation sick pay

We know that some of our colleagues have been concerned about what will happen if they need to take more than two working weeks off as they still have symptoms of coronavirus, or because they need to go into a second self-isolation because they or someone in their household has symptoms. As we’ve always said the health and wellbeing of our colleagues is incredibly important to us and so we want to make sure they are able to do the right thing to protect themselves, their fellow colleagues and our customers. If a colleague is still ill after two working weeks then they should stay at home and they will continue to receive sick pay (at this point it will come off their entitlement). If they need to go into another separate self-isolation then we want to reassure them that they will be paid sick pay from day 1 (again this will come off their entitlement). Please help to explain this to any colleagues calling through to ask for advice as they come towards the end of their two working weeks absence.

Associates week 

Walmart has made the difficult decision to no longer host International Associates Week in June. While we are all disappointed, it's the right thing to do to ensure everyone’s continued safety. We have been in touch with all colleagues due to attend this year, and we’ve advised them of the cancellation and that their place on the trip has been deferred to 2021. If you have any questions from your colleagues please send them to Asda Events where we’ll answer them as quickly as possible.

You'll have seen that Roger wrote to our customers this morning with information about how we're keeping our colleagues and customers safe during this time. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for everything that you've put into place so quickly to make sure our stores are safe.

Here are a few points to update you on today:

Thank you Easter Eggs

As we continue to try and recognise the hard work of all our colleagues in different ways, we will be giving every colleague an Easter Egg. Please make sure you take a moment to pass on the thanks of the whole business for their continued support in these challenging times. More information about how to process this is included in today’s coronavirus update.

We've also included this message in next week's huddle note so please make sure you download it from WalmartOne, print it off and put it somewhere that your colleagues can see it.

First aiders

To help our First Aid colleagues, please review the specific Q&A on WalmartOne here. All stores should check their first aid kits to make sure that gloves and hand sanitiser are readily available or in close proximity.

Approved holiday rollover

It’s important we all take annual leave to get rest and keep physically and mentally healthy, however during the coronavirus outbreak, we recognise we need to be more flexible in how we approach and manage our colleague holidays. The government have also recognised this and have temporarily relaxed the law to respond to this.

Over the next few months, if a colleague has a holiday booked which they now can’t or perhaps don’t want to take then we should allow them to postpone this.

To help manage this and smooth out our holiday planning, colleagues will be able to carry up to four weeks’ of their holiday entitlement over from this holiday year (2020/21), which starts on Sunday 5^th April into the next holiday year (2021/22). The new holiday year started on the 1^st April for all salaried colleagues.

We are all so busy at the moment so it’s more important than ever that we take the time to rest and recharge, however we should recognise that colleagues may not want to take as much time as they had originally planned and allow them to shorten their break.

This only applies for this holiday year (2020/21) and we know that we will need to work together in our teams to help manage our holiday cover when we come out of the current situation.

If a colleague leaves during the two year period, any untaken paid holiday will be added to their final pay.

This message is also included in next week's huddle note for you to share with your colleagues.

Hand soap, sanitiser gel and gloves

Hand soap - All stores including PFS will be transitioning from the foam soap to a bulk 5-litre liquid soap and allocations will start arriving into stores from Wednesday next week. You will also receive new wall-mounted dispensers for the customer toilets and pelican pump dispensers for the colleague toilets. Stores will no longer be able to order the foam soap from Bunzl and if you have placed an order for some this week you will not receive it. Please make sure you are using your stock of the current Foam Soap first, before using the new, bulk liquid soap.

Hand sanitiser gel - We are allocating our largest allocation of Carex 300ml bottles so far and it will arrive on Tuesday 7th April via toyou in cages. Please follow the ‘putaway’ process for internal parcels when booking the gel in. Once the shipment has been received, please make sure you put the parcel away by scanning D500 location. The allocated volumes per format are included on today’s coronavirus update.

Gloves - Next week we will be allocating more gloves to all stores. The allocated volumes (boxes of 50 pairs) by format will be included on today’s coronavirus ppdate.