The chair of a committee of MPs has accused Asda’s co-owner of “wasting” its time following a tempestuous evidence session on the supermarket chain’s fuel prices and employment practices.
Darren Jones hit out at Mohsin Issa and the company’s chief people officer Hayley Tatum following an often heated hour-long evidence hearing with the Business and Trade Committee.
He told them: “This has been quite an extraordinary session… you’ve not answered any of our questions.
“I’m just very sorry that we’ve spent an hour going round in circles and you’ve not been complying with the questions from this committee.
“It’s not in order and I think actually you’ve suffered to the detriment for the brand of Asda to your customers and your suppliers.”
Mr Issa, who was requested to give evidence in person to clarify perceived discrepancies in remarks given to the committee last month, defended its fuel price strategy from a damning report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA.
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It had declared that drivers had been overcharged by the supermarket sector as a whole in the wake of a margin shift by Asda.
The CMA found that Asda’s pence per litre fuel margin targets were three times their 2019 level by 2023.
Mr Issa repeated the company’s position that there had been no change to its fuel strategy since the business was bought from Walmart in 2021.
“We remain the price leader”, he told MPs but explained that, as part of that strategy, Asda had invested additional margin from its fuel offering to invest in food and other essentials.
He refused to separate the fuel business from the wider Asda empire, despite MPs declaring that drivers had paid an unfair premium to fill up.
The second half of the session was dominated by so-called fire-and-rehire and involved several MPs, with affiliations to the GMB union, hitting out at the company’s engagement with its staff.
Ms Tatum had described the practice – when an employee is told they will be let go unless they agree potentially weaker contract terms – as “dismiss and reengage” and insisted it was only a last resort.
The GMB, in May, claimed 7,000 workers had been threatened with the measure as part of discussions with the company over night shift payments that will see a premium payment removed, taking pay in to line across Asda.
“We don’t know whether we would end up in a fire and rehire position”, Ms Tatum said when she was asked to explain why ‘dismiss and reengage’ was an option amid continuing negotiations.
Committee chair Mr Jones said he reserved the right to recall both Mr Issa and Ms Tatum in future.
The supermarket sector as a whole faces further regulatory scrutiny on Thursday when the CMA is due to update on its investigation into grocery prices.
It has been looking into suggestions that chains – and other parts of the supply chain – have been making excessive profits.
