Asda is ploughing more than £150m into the business amid moves to hike up pay by 8.4% to more than 120,000 staff.
The supermarket chain – the UK’s third largest – says it will increase basic pay for retail workers to £12.04 an hour later this year, with those at stores inside the M25 receiving £13.21. Asda has become the latest supermarket group to increase its pay, ahead of an increase in the national minimum wage in April.
The national minimum wage will increase from its current rate of £10.42 to £11.44 on April 1. Asda currently pays an hourly rate of £11.11 to its workers, and £12.28 to staff working at stores within the M25.
Read more: Go here for more retail business news
Asda said it will give staff an interim increase to the new national minimum wage in April, with those inside the M25 receiving £12.61, before it launches the larger pay deal in July. Usdaw, the trade union that negotiates with Asda on retail pay in Northern Ireland and in Asda Express, is recommending members accept the rates in a ballot that closes on March 15.
Mohsin Issa, Asda co-owner, said: “This record investment will see Asda become the highest paying grocery retailer in the UK, recognising the hard work of our store colleagues in serving customers every day. We want to be a company that people are proud to work for, which is why we are proposing increasing pay for retail and Express colleagues by more than 8% this year.”
The announcement comes as the supermarket group opens its 1,000th UK store in Stevenage, amid the rapid expansion of its convenience business following its takeover by the billionaire Issa brothers, from Blackburn, and TDR Capital in 2021.
Meanwhile, co-owner Mohsin Issa has told the BBC that he is preparing to hand over the running of the company to a new chief executive. Giving his first interview to the corporation, Mr Issa said he was carrying out a “reset” of the business before hiring a new CEO.
He insisted he was “here for the long haul” despite Asda’s £5bn debt pile, and also shrugged off rumours of a rift with his brother Zuber, adding: “We talk to each other probably two or three times a day. We’ve been very, very privileged. We have been on a journey and we have got a long way still to go.”
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber