Hi all, you are right you do read all sorts on line.
I can only say my opinion on this matter due to my experience working at Aldi.
So from my experience working as a customer assistant with them for over a year I can honestly say never in my life thought that such slavery could exist in this days.
Aldi managers are full of empty promises and deputy managers are bullies. I have been shouted at swear at and much more. If you dare to complain to regional manager about how you been treated nothing will change, and if the person you complained about for a example a deputy manager, gets to know about it they will make your life hell. You are at their disposal, if they want you to work 12 hours per week on a 25 hour contract is nothing you can do, and if they want you to work 40 hours on a 25 hour contract, still nothing you can do. The company has no human resources or anyone higher to go, no union, nothing. you are left to their mercy. You work very hard like a donkey dealing with deliveries on your own, example if you are allocated at 6 in the morning the fresh produce make no mistake the fresh produce of the whole store to do on your own while been shouted by deputy managers "hurry up" , "your to slow", "store will open soon and you better be finished". Then you have to run on the till and if not a lot of customers then you jump of the till and stock shelves. On the late shift you are down on the rota to finish at 10;30. Impossible!!!
At ten when store closes you have to cart the whole store, sweep and mop. You are only aloud to go when deputy manager on duty says so. I had night that I left the store at 12;30. And then an announcement was made from store manager saying that on late shift when you stay after 10;30 you will not get paid because is your fault you dident finish on time. My husband was pressuring me to leave the place because of the stress I was under and the fact I couldn't have a family life because I had to be at their disposal.
One particular night shift me and my colleagues, around 5 of as, got together and said"tonight we will work together to finish at list by 11, who ever finishes their job first to go and find the next colleague and help them" so we finished at 11 and then had to report to deputy manager that we are all done and we will go home, She said no you are not, I will check the whole store first, When she said that, I knew we will not be going home at 11. She went in the aisle and started" that's not done good, that's need to be done again, what is f.....wrong with you people? nobody is going until everything is done to my satisfaction" so we started again. I can go on and on. Finally I resigned and said I had enough. It shocks me even now when i think about it that in 2015 in Britain there company's treating employees like this and they get away with it. If you work at Aldi in Uk and you never say nothing, have an opinion or disagree then you be just fine. When i left they did not pay my final wages or holiday money and contacting them they just said we owe you nothing. In the end I had to go to ACAS. I know a lot of ex colleagues that did not receive final pay and we are talking about the days and hours you worked for the hours that you earned by working with them and they refuse to pay. So basically 90% of Aldi workers are foreign so they don't know what to do or who can help them so Aldi gets away with not paying them.
Everything you just read is what I experienced and went through personaly working at an Aldi store in London.