Around 9,500 employees working for Asda received incorrect payslips last week due to an ‘IT glitch’.

While Asda said the vast majority of its 150,000 staff were paid accurately on Friday (March 22), many hourly paid workers received incorrect payslips on Thursday in terms of holiday allowance, as the firm, which is co-owned by Blackburn’s billionaire Issa brothers, moved to a new IT system.

Asda said that on Wednesday evening (March 20), bosses identified a “holiday pay file issue that impacted 9,500 colleagues” and took a “pragmatic decision to push through values to match February pay for any colleagues impacted to ensure colleagues were paid”.

This meant that payslips received by staff on Thursday morning (March 21) showed incorrect holiday pay amounts, but Asda moved to rectify this, and said that “Friday pay was in bank accounts on time”.

The glitch was believed to be as a result of owner, Mohsin Issa, along with partners, TDR Capital, attempting to migrate to a new IT and HR system.

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An Asda spokesperson said: “We recently launched a new HR system and conducted pre-emptive checks to identify any potential issues before colleagues were paid this month.

“These checks found a potential problem with holiday pay that could have resulted in a pay discrepancy for some hourly-paid colleagues.

“We have taken immediate and proactive steps to correct this – to help ensure there will be no shortfall in pay for these colleagues this month.”

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Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said: "GMB understands many Asda colleagues experienced significant issues with their pay on March 22.

"The issue has arisen due to the change in 'People Systems' used by Asda as they move away from old Walmart systems.

"Asda has issued significant comms to stores on this issue, however it seems from the anecdotal feedback GMB members have been giving that many colleagues have been significantly underpaid.

"This is clearly causing stress and anxiety for many workers -  GMB hopes this is something that Asda can resolve quickly." 

The Issa brothers, who also own and run EG Group, bought Asda in 2021 and became joint shareholders with TDR Capital.

Recently, Zuber Issa announced that he would be concentrating his efforts on the brothers’ petrol station empire, while Mohsin said he was stepping back from the day-to-day running of Asda and was intent on employing a CEO.