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Asda bosses scoop £1.4bn in petrol profits but condemn workers to low pay, says GMB

MEGA-RICH Asda bosses have pocketed a whopping £1.4 billion in petrol profits while condemning their staff to low pay, GMB charged today.

The retail union has written to Asda owners Zuber Issa and Mohsin Issa to demand an urgent meeting after another of the brothers’ firms - EG Group - recorded a 20 per cent jump in gross fuel profits.

Despite the mammoth increase, brought on by surging global energy prices, Britain’s third biggest supermarket is “once again the worst paying of the big four,” GMB said, the others being Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Two separate increases earlier this year saw the wages of ordinary workers at the chain rise by nearly 8 per cent to £10.10 an hour, but the rate still lags behind what its competitors pay.

A recent GMB survey of Asda workers found that 87 per cent are struggling to make ends meet.

National officer Nadine Houghton said: “The Issa brothers are buying private jets while their low-paid, predominantly women workers are worried they won’t be able to heat their homes this Christmas.

“It’s a shocking state of affairs [and] we call on the Issa brothers to urgently intervene.”

The EG Group was contacted for comment.

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