ASDA has announced a major restructure that puts 5,000 jobs at risk, including 3,000 back office workers.
The supermarket says the change is due to a move towards online shopping, sped up by the pandemic.
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The restructure will create 4,500 jobs in its online operations over the course of the year, which the grocery giant will look to fill with staff affected by the restructuring plans.
Even so, Asda said the consultation will affect thousands of cash and administrative roles following a slump in cash transactions.
The plans will also see the closure of its Dartford and Heston home shopping centres in a bit to move processing more online orders in stores, affecting around 800 jobs.
It added that around 1,100 of its store management roles will be changed to support online sales as more picking takes place in branches rather than warehouses.
What are my redundancy rights?
BEFORE making you unemployed, your employer should still carry out a fair redundancy process.
You are entitled to be consulted on the redundancy lay-off first and to receive a statutory redundancy payment, as long as you’ve been working somewhere for at least two years.
How much you’re entitled to depends on your age and length of service, although this is capped at 20 years. You’ll get:
- Half a week’s pay for each full year you were under 22,
- One week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or older, but under 41,
- One and half week’s pay for each full year you were 41 or older.
Sadly, you won’t be entitled to a payout if you’ve been working for your employer for fewer than two years.
There should be a period of collective consultation as well as time for individual ones if your employer wants to make 20 or more employees redundant within 90 days or each other.
You are also entitled to appeal the decision by claiming unfair dismissal within three months of being let go.
However, the company said this could increase the total headcount in these roles by around 60, as part of the consultations.
Asda boss Roger Burnley said: “We know that these proposed changes will be unsettling for colleagues and our priority is to support them during this consultation process.
“Our plans to transform the business will result in more roles being created than those we propose to remove and our absolute aim is to ensure as many colleagues as possible stay with us, as well as creating the opportunity to welcome new people to our business.”
Millions of vulnerable and self-isolating Brits have been relying on the online service for food while they follow stay at home orders.
To keep up with demand, supermarkets dramatically ramped up the number of delivery slots available.
Asda doubled its delivery capacity from 450,000 a week in March 2020 to over 700,000 now, with the most vulnerable shoppers getting priority.
In the first wave of the coronavirus crisis, it went on a hiring spree by taking on 5,000 temporary workers.
Mr Burnley added: “The last 12 months have shown us that businesses have to be prepared to adapt quickly to change and I am incredibly proud of the way we demonstrated our agility and resilience through the pandemic.”
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It comes months after the billionaire Issa brothers and private equity backer TDR Capital agreed a £6.8 billion deal for the supermarket chain.
The takeover is still awaiting approval from competition regulators, so the new owners are yet to take control of Asda’s operations.
In December, Asda joined Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons in handing back a collective £1.15billion saved from the Government’s businesses rates holiday.
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