Asda employees ‘skipping meals’ due to monthly payroll errors

theguardian.com:

Asda employees are having to skip household bill payments, take out loans, and even use food banks to get through the month due to regular payroll errors that have seen some underpaid by £500 or more.

The scale of the problem emerged after the private equity-backed company admitted to members of the Scottish parliament that its external payroll firm had made nearly 11,000 errors in recent months, affecting the wages of 5,500 staff.

In Scotland, local press reports have highlighted the issue, including a recent one in the Falkirk Herald that claimed staff working in the town’s superstore were using food banks and payday lenders because of inaccuracies in their pay.

Supermarket staff told the GMB union they were getting increasingly desperate as monthly payments could be short by anything from under £100 to over £500. Others reported that overpayments, clawed back the following month, had resulted in their benefits being cut.

The errors had left staff “dreading” rather than looking forward to payday, telling the union they were skipping meals, visiting food banks and taking out loans when their wages were short. Others had had to miss bill payments, with the resulting black marks affecting their credit score.

“Paying staff for the work they do is an utterly basic responsibility of employers,” said Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, of the company which was bought by petrol station billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa and TDR Capital last year.

“Asda knows it is a massive issue, but sadly isn’t doing enough to put this right – they refuse to invest the money needed in the payroll operation to sort this out.

“The stories we have heard from our members are heartbreaking,” added Houghton. “During a cost-of-living crisis, low-paid