Asda is cutting 475 jobs at its head offices and ordering staff back to the workplace as it restructures the business.
The supermarket is slashing roles in Leeds and Leicestershire to help it “meet its long-term ambitions” after reporting a 2.2% drop in total revenues excluding fuel from April to June 2024.
However, it stressed the move will affect less than 10% of its workforce based in the regions and said fixed-term contractors who are working on our IT transformation project will also leave over the course of the next few months as this project finishes.
Staff were informed that hybrid working would be reduced in a note earlier this week, with company chairman Lord Rose stating attendance at work would need to be at least three days per week from the new year.
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In the note, employees were told: “We have to recognise that the market is challenging and the competition isn’t standing still.”
Commenting on the move, an Asda spokesperson said: “This approach brings us in line with our competitors and the wider market, allowing us to build high-performing teams with a collaborative culture and respond to what our business needs the most. The change is effective from January 2025 to allow time for all colleagues to make any necessary arrangements.”
But GMB union said Asda’s staff were “bearing the brunt” of its decision to cut costs due to its declining market share.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: “Handing hundreds of committed workers a brown envelope and showing them the door is a morally repugnant way to treat your workforce.”
Highlighting concerns that the supermarket had not correctly followed the legal process for mass redundancies, she insisted the “cost-cutting drive” had been due to desperate attempts to curb spending by TDR Capital, which as of last week owns 67.5% of the business.
Houghton added: “Asda workers are, once again, bearing the brunt for TDR Capital’s financial engineering.”
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