// Thousands of Asda employees have been forced to take out loans and skip meals due to regular payroll errors at the supermarket
// Staff told the GMB union they were getting increasingly desperate as monthly payments could be short by anything from under £100 to over £500
Asda employees are having to stop paying household bills, take out loans, and even resort to food banks as regular payroll errors have seen some underpaid by £500 or more a month.
The scale of the issues were revealed after the supermarket admitted to members of the Scottish parliament that its external payroll firm had made nearly 11,000 errors in recent months, affecting the wages of 5,500 staff.
In Scotland, local press reports have highlighted the issue, including a recent report in the Falkirk Herald that claimed staff working in the town’s superstore were using food banks and payday lenders because of inaccuracies in their pay.
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Staff at the supermarket told the GMB union they were getting increasingly desperate as monthly payments could be short by anything from under £100 to over £500. Others reported that overpayments, clawed back the following month, had resulted in their benefits being cut.
The errors had left staff “dreading” rather than looking forward to payday, telling the union they were skipping meals, visiting food banks and taking out loans when their wages were short. Others had had to miss bill payments – affecting their credit score.
“Paying staff for the work they do is an utterly basic responsibility of employers,” said Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, of the company which was bought by petrol station billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa and TDR Capital last year.
“Asda knows it is a massive issue, but sadly isn’t doing enough to put this right – they refuse to invest the money needed in the payroll operation to sort this out.
“The stories we have heard from our members are heartbreaking,” added Houghton. “During a cost-of-living crisis, low-paid workers must be able to rely on a level of decency from their employer that ensures they are paid for the work they do.”
An Asda Spokesperson said: “It is imperative that our colleagues are paid correctly and on time and we are sorry this has not been the case for some of them. As soon as we were aware of this issue, we took action to ensure that nobody was left out of pocket.
“We are working closely with our payroll partner and have provided additional support to stores to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
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