Lidl has described the decision as ‘unavoidable’ as councillors share dismay
Staff at a West London supermarket have been made redundant but “guaranteed” a job interview after a supermarket giant pledged to do all it could to avoid giving employees the boot.
This comes as Lidl plans to take over the Asda in the Ivybridge Retail Park, which closed on June 5. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands Lidl had agreed with Asda to TUPE all 37 staff members over under existing pay, conditions and benefits – TUPE is a law designed to protect employees’ rights when the business they work for transfers to a new owner.
However, in an email seen by the LDRS. Lidl were “unable to prevent redundancies.” The company said: “We want to ensure these colleagues have a clear pathway back to the store. We have advised all affected employees that they will be guaranteed an interview for the new Isleworth store as soon as we begin the recruitment process ahead of our opening.”
Since May, Lidl has engaged in a consultation process with staff to determine what the best course of action would be. The company says that the former Asda “requires a closure of over 6 months to refit and refurbish the site to meet Lidl’s operational standards” and it is for this reason that redundancies are unavoidable.
This means that Lidl held a consultation with employees, pledged to avoid redundancies, then made redundancies for reasons which were known before the process began.
The supermarket giant says that throughout the consultation process, the priority was to explore all avenues to redeploy staff to other stores. In an email, a company employee said: “We looked extensively into transferring the affected employees to surrounding Lidl stores; however, due to very limited vacancy availability at nearby locations, we were unfortunately unable to secure alternative employment for them.
“As a result, the former Asda colleagues were made redundant on 24th June.” Lidl were contacted for comment but declined to provide an official response.
The LDRS understands that all former colleagues have been “guaranteed [an] interview for positions at the new Isleworth store as soon as recruitment opens” – effectively meaning staff who have been made redundant could be rehired under different conditions, although that is not guaranteed.
Councillor Salman Shaheen is an Isleworth ward councillor and Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Public Realm. He told the LDRS that Lidl’s talk is “cheap.”
He said: “I was really looking forward to welcoming Lidl’s arrival in Isleworth – it is important that we have an affordable supermarket serving the Ivybridge estate – but I can no longer do so with any great cheer. I’ve looked into the Middle of Lidl and what I’ve seen is the shoddy treatment of workers who have served our community for many years.
“When Cllr Sue Sampson, Ruth Cadbury MP and I wrote to Lidl, urging them to rule out compulsory redundancies, they told us they’d do everything they could to avoid them. In the end, they’ve done the exact opposite. They’ve made everyone redundant, with no guarantee of getting their old job back, only the paltry promise of an interview, and no protection of workers’ existing pay and conditions as they would have received under TUPE. Lidl’s products may be cheap, but sadly it seems so is their talk.”
Lidl maintains that it is committed to completing the transition as efficiently as possible and looks forward to serving the community of Isleworth later this year.
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