THE GMB union brought Bournemouth to a standstill today as 700 members marched to demand equal pay for female Asda workers – taking a life-size cutout of boss Manjit Dale along with them.

Minimum-wage shop staff hit out at being paid £2.80 less than their mainly male colleagues in distribution centres while cuts to working hours have tripled their workload.

Under the supermarket giant’s indebted private equity owners, TDR Capital, millions of hours have been slashed from the shopfloor while store workers are owed billions of pounds through their equal pay claim, GMB said.