Usdaw campaigned through the collective consultation process against the company’s unnecessary and unfair proposals. Over 2,000 members signed a petition, which had been promoted on Facebook, the media and by reps in store. The union submitted a detailed and evidenced counter proposal in response to the consultation, which ended on the 3 March.

Michala Lafferty – Usdaw Area Organiser says: “We are delighted that the company has listened to our members and the case we made as part of the consultation process. As a result the Company has agreed that they will no longer reduce the enhanced life cover for current members in the ‘Step Up’ section.

“We do think that Asda could do more to improve the pension scheme and they were surprised by the strong reaction from staff to their original proposals, so Usdaw will keep it on the bargaining agenda for future discussions.

“Staff will now have individual meetings with their manager to look at how the changes to the scheme will affect them personally, but we are recommending that our members accept the proposals.”

Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 28% over the decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion