Asos has hit back at the Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith after he called for an inquiry into the fashion retailer over allegations that it uses zero-hours contracts.
In a post on his website, the former shadow work and pensions secretary said Asos has the “worst forms of zero-hours arrangements I’ve come across”. The retailer denies that any employees are on zero-hours contracts.
In a letter to the chair of the business, innovation and skills select committee, Iain Wright, Smith said staff “face invasive surveillance, limited access to toilet facilities and random searches during lunch breaks,” likening the company to Sports Direct.
The letter followed a meeting that Smith held with local activists from the GMB union at Asos’s distribution centre in Barnsley. GMB, the UK’s third-largest union, has since endorsed Smith’s leadership campaign.
Smith’s campaign had long courted an endorsement from GMB, which previously raised concerns about Asos warehouse staff, including working conditions and allegations that the company uses short-notice contracts for many employees.
Asos said Smith had not been in touch with the online retailer or XPO Logistics, which runs the 102,000 sq metre (1.1m sq ft) centre, or visited to see conditions for employees.
“We were surprised to see these allegations from Owen, given that it was the first we had heard from him and he’s never been inside the warehouse,” a spokeswoman said.
“We work incredibly hard with XPO to create a positive, supportive, healthy working environment for the team in Barnsley. As we have now said on the record several times before: we don’t do zero-hours contracts, people can take toilet and water breaks whenever they want, and we pay above minimum wage.”
The retailer said it had recently spent £3m on a cooling project to alleviate high temperatures in the warehouse during hot weather.
A spokesperson for Smith said: “The allegations against Asos are incredibly serious and should not be treated lightly. That is why Owen has raised this matter with the relevant select committee in parliament and asked them to investigate. Owen would be more than happy to visit the warehouse at Barnsley and to talk to workers and management about these issues.”
Smith’s campaign said his letter to Wright had made it clear that he was referring to “effectively sub-zero hour contracts, where workers face little to no notice of the hours they’re expected to work”.
