In a memo sent to workers today and seen by Retail Week, Asda boss Roger Burnley said 120,000 of its employees had already agreed to take up the new contracts from Sunday, ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for acceptance.

Burnley said that meant “less than 1,000” workers were “still undecided” over the new deal – considerably less than the 12,000 figure the GMB union claimed earlier this week.

Asda said it was “disappointing” that such “misinformation” had been communicated to its workers and offered to extend the deadline to sign until Sunday, November 10.