Asos agrees changes warehouse working conditions after attack

Asos chief executive Nick Beighton has defended the company's working practices for staff at its Barnsley warehouse after they were attacked by the GMB union, but he agreed to change some policies.

In an open letter to staff that aimed to "set the record straight" Beighton set out a bulleted list refuting some of the points claimed by GMB when it said last month that Asos would be "the next Sports Direct".

On wages, he said Asos pay was above the statutory National Living Wage for all employees of all ages, has never used zero-hours contracts and was not reducing other benefits to cover the increase in wages.

But with security searches, "a highly emotive issue and if handled insensitively" and one of the main sparks of conflict behind Sports Direct's staffing issues, Beighton apologised over the occasions when searches were conducted during employees’ lunch or break time, which he said would not happen again.

"Following consultation with staff, we have decided not to move forward with the proposal of installing security cameras at each packing station," he added.

Further consultation with an employee forum has also led to the scrapping of 'same-day flexing' which when employees were on a 'flex week' could be asked to flex up or down, depending on demand, and instead will in future be given at least 24-hours notice.

GMB regional secretary Neil Derrick had accused Asos of having the highest level of invasive monitoring and surveillance it had ever seen, which was increased workplace stress among other negative effects, and adding that "unjustified surveillance by an employer is usually a symptom of wider abuse and exploitation in the workplace”.

He said Asos operated with " in-your-face cameras on every workstation...frequent random searches" and cited story from an employee who was allegedly suspended for refusing a search during her lunch break.

In his letter on Thursday, Beighton said there had been "inaccurate and misleading things" said about how the warehouse operations and trusted the letter would dispel the allegations.

"I take huge exception to the idea that we are secretive and exploit our people. We have nothing to hide and much to be proud of."

He added: "We take exception to the suggestion that we are secretive and exploit people. We do not pretend to get everything right all the time, but the picture being painted of how we run our warehouse is very wrong. “No smoke without fire” would be a reasonable reaction to the recent media coverage, but ultimately inaccurate. So let’s deal with the facts in detail."