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Union claims ASDA aims to dilute deal at Dartford
Page 7
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SUPERMARKET GIANT Asda is trying to dilute a recognition agreement at its Dartford depot, days .after it was ordered to pay 340 staff £850,000 for attempting an identical move in the North-East, according to the GMB union.
The Wal-Mart-owned firm lost the Employment Tribunal after it was found to have offered the drivers and warehouse staff inducements to give up collective bargaining rights.
GMB senior officer Paul Maloney says the money is a "drop in the ocean" for ASDA and that it is now trying to change pay. leave and working :hours at its Dartford depot. He believes this will .water down the union's ability to represent the 1,000 drivers and warehouse staff there.
"Wal-Mart is a notoriously anti-trade union cam party,' Maloney adds. "We're talking with management to try and avoid a dispute. We aren't going to have our members messed about."
Last week the GMB demonstrated outside the offices of Public Relations firm Portland PR after it emerged that it was engaged by Asda to distribute anti-union leaflets before a ballot on union rights. Portland PR was founded by ex-Labour spin doctor Tim Allan. And the supermarket has sparked anger among union members in Wigan after increasing its 'daily pick rate for staff lifting boxes from 1,100 to 1,400, the GMB claims. It describes the target as equivalent to "working out in a gym for eight hours a day, everyday".
Asda was unavailable for comment.
christopher.tindall@rbi.co.uk