GMB blasts Asos over call centre redundancy talks

The GMB union has once again hit out at Asos for its treatment of workers during the coronavirus outbreak.

It previously accused the fast fashion giant of “playing Russian roulette with people’s lives” as it failed to enforce social distancing in packed warehouses.

And now it has condemned the pureplay for plans to make up to 300 call centre workers redundant at its Leavesden site, and send jobs overseas, after issuing a consultation notice as the country looked likely to head into lockdown (a 45 days consultation period ends on Saturday).

"Asos say they are ‘fashion with integrity’. You could have fooled me. The company is sacking workers under the cover of a national crisis in order to save money by offshoring their jobs,” says Steve Garelick, GMB London Region Organiser.

“What are sacked workers supposed to do? Instead of furloughing workers which Asos could well afford to do, the company are washing their hands of all responsibility and sending jobs overseas - it’s heartless and immoral. It’s completely hypocritical.”

“In Barnsley, Asos said they had to stay open - after its workers said they felt unsafe at work - to help keep the economy running - where’s that staunch commitment to the UK economy now?” he adds.

“Sending these jobs overseas when the UK needs every job and income it can get shows the contempt the company holds UK communities in the middle of a crisis while the rest of us are pulling together - it’s the bottom line above all else for them. There’s still time to do the right thing, if they’re serious about acting with ‘integrity’ they need to halt this plan now."

A spokesperson for Asos responded: “Once again, we are seeing the GMB union - which isn’t recognised at any Asos site anywhere in the country – stirring up trouble and continuing to spread false and reckless claims in a desperate attempt to drive memberships, which it has repeatedly failed to do in any meaningful way for many years now.”

“As the professional two way consultation with a number of potentially impacted employees at our customer care centre near Watford has yet to conclude, it would be inappropriate to discuss it publicly out of respect for the process and for those involved,” they added.