Troubled supermarket chain Kwik Save will go into administration today unless staff agree to work unpaid for another week.
Kwik Save has asked employees to work unpaid for the second week in a row. Image: Neil Munns/PA.
At a court hearing in Manchester yesterday, the firm asked for another seven days to put together a refinancing package.
The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied workers' (Usdaw) said workers who have not been paid for a week are now being asked to carry on working without money for another week.
If they do not agree, then Kwik Save will be placed into administration today.
Usdaw's national officer Joanne McGuinness said staff had been placed in a "very difficult situation".
"If they agree then they face another week of mounting debts, but if they don't then the company goes under and they then have to wait to get money from the Department of Trade and Industry," she said.
"We have told Kwik Save that if staff agree to do work unpaid then they should be allowed to apply to the company for short-term loans so they can at least put food on the table for their families."
The union urged the company to continue offering hardship loans to staff at its 145 stores as well as those made redundant following the closure of 81 supermarkets.
PA