FASHION retailer Asos is continuing to subject 4,000 workers to a brutal management regime at its huge Yorkshire warehouse, a news website reported yesterday.
A Labour MP is pressing for legislation to protect workers employed in such “scandalous conditions.”
In June, the Morning Star exclusively reported that Asos staff undergo body searches, are denied toilet breaks and some have even had to urinate at drinking-water points as there was no time to walk to the toilets.
General union GMB wants practices at the warehouse — built on the site of the former Grimethorpe colliery in Barnsley — probed by the Commons business committee.
Following a three-month probe, online media organisation BuzzFeed yesterday confirmed the Star’s revelations that, as well as suffering body searches, workers are spied on by an increasing number of CCTV cameras and are even made to remove their shoes and socks if they trigger a alarm when they leave work.
Staff also have pass through a security check when they go to the toilet. Security guards are posted outside the toilets and a facility area where they can get a cup of tea.
GMB regional secretary Neil Derrick said yesterday: “These reports show that employment at Asos is not only stressful, invasive, and deeply exploitative but also hazardous to workers’ health.
“Ignoring the concerns of GMB members has now become downright dangerous.
“Health and safety issues, round the clock, in-your-face surveillance, impossible targets and unfair contracts have created a damaging, anxiety-ridden workplace and our members have been under the cosh for too long.”
Labour MP Louise Haigh, who represents Sheffield Heeley, has tabled a private member’s Bill to extend regulation of gangmasters to the warehousing and retail sector.
She said: “These revelations, coming so soon after systematic exploitation was uncovered at Sports Direct, expose the scandalous conditions of too many British workplaces.
“That’s why I’m introducing a Bill to toughen up labour laws in sectors like warehousing and retail so we can root out the exploitation that takes place unreported across the UK.”
GMB is campaigning to recruit workers at Asos, which refuses to recognise the union.
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