Asda's depot workers are balloted over safety strike

Workers in Asda Wal-Mart’s 20 distribution depots across the country are being balloted for strike action over safety and other issues by the GMB general union.

The supermarket giant is trying to impose a daily pick rate of 1,400 boxes – each weighing up to 20kg – per depot worker, but the GMB argues that the safe rate is no more than 1,100 boxes (see Workplace Report, March 2006).

The pressure that workers are under was illustrated at the Grangemouth depot last month, when a worker jammed the “dead man’s pedal” on a truck to keep it moving as workers rushed to pick boxes from the shelves. The moving truck collided with the racking.

In opposing the new pick rate –the equivalent of asking staff to “work out in a gym for eight hours a day, every working day,” according to Grangemouth organiser Ian King – the GMB has the support of professionals who deal with back injuries caused by work.

“Repetitive bending and lifting over prolonged periods can cause musculoskeletal problems,” said Sarah Bazin of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. “Upping work rate targets might deliver short-term gains in productivity but the long-term impact of increasing sickness absence bills and low morale could be far more costly.”

The results of the strike ballot, which also covers collective bargaining and pay disputes, were awaited as Workplace Report went to press.