A FIFTH Asda store faces industrial action after nearly 200 GMB union members backed strikes in a consultative ballot.

The union said that workers at the store in Lowestoft, Suffolk, are angry at cuts in hours, poor-quality training, bullying management and health and safety issues not being addressed.

They have also raised concerns over “rampant” fire safety breaches, unresolved equal pay claims and a lack of collective bargaining with GMB.  

Turnout was just under 80 per cent, nearly 90 per cent of those said they were ready to strike, the union reported.

It comes after industrial action at Gosport in Hampshire and strike votes at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire and Brighton’s Hollingbury and Marina stores. 

GMB regional organiser Keith Dixon said: “The current state of the company is dire.”

He said that GMB had sent photographic evidence of some 4,000 alleged health and safety breaches “including blocked fire exits, fire routes and fire extinguishers, along with faulty fire alarm systems.”

An Asda spokesman said it has not received any “formal complaints at the Lowestoft store relating to the claims made by the GMB”.