Recruiters that supply temporary staff to the distribution centres of supermarket giant Asda have been accused of “pre-loading staff”, lessening the effect of a strike by the GMB union.

In a statement issued last week the union said: “GMB members working in Asda’s distribution depots have reported that these agencies are currently pre-loading staff into depots. GMB members consider that they have been employed to break the strike.”
The GMB members had also reported that the depots are currently overstaffed with agency workers.

However, Asda dismissed the claims. A spokeswoman told Recruiter: “It is absolute nonsense. There are no more temporary workers in our depots at the moment than there was this time last year, or the year before. Asda will absolutely not be breaking the law by using temps to replace those staff members taking industrial action. However we do have plans in place to ensure that our customers are not affected.”

The union last week wrote to the 62 employment agencies it said supplied to Asda warning them of the severe penalties if they break the Conduct of Recruitment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003.
GMB national office Jude Brimble said: “We are seeking assurances from these agencies involved that they will not get involved in doing GMB members’ jobs during strike action. If they do so the agencies risked being fined £5,000 for each worker supplied, and risk losing their operating licences for ten years. She added: “The GMB Congress has pledged to use the full force of the courts to enforce this law.” 

Recruiter can reveal that many of the agencies named by the union no longer supply Asda with staff. However Driver Hire is still a supplier. Its business development director, Steve Wortley, said he was “fully aware” of the legal position. “That's why we are instructing offices who supply drivers or other workforce to an ASDA Wal-Mart RDC, to request written confirmation that cover is for a normal business requirement and not to provide potential cover for a worker who may, if called upon by the GMB, choose to take strike action. We have also reminded the whole of our network of the contents of the regulations."

The Asda employees are to strike over the supermarket’s failure to pay bonuses to 100,000 staff, because it fell short of making its £850m profit target. Another bone of contention is Asda’s attempted use of radio frequency voice picking to increase the daily pick rate per person, which the union says is a health and safety risk.