Asda is plotting more job cuts just days after it made almost 500 staff redundant without a consultation period.

Staff brought in to work on the supermarket’s IT overhaul are expected to be targeted in the next wave of redundancies, with the programme, dubbed internally “Project Future”, expected to be completed early next year.

Bosses have refused to say how many workers could be let go but admitted the number would be “meaningful”.

It comes amid growing scrutiny of Asda’s decision to make hundreds of head office staff redundant last week, a move that was carried out without giving employees any forewarning.

Government rules typically require companies to carry out a 45-day consultation when dismissing 100 employees or more. There is no suggestion that Asda has broken the law.

It is understood union chiefs are considering discrimination claims against the supermarket, particularly on behalf of women who were let go while on maternity leave.

A GMB spokesman said: “GMB are concerned that Asada have circumvented the established legal process for ensuring mass redundancies are handled fairly.

“This calls into question how they have ensured the process has been equality-proofed to protect, for example, women, those with disabilities, those with caring responsibilities.

“Head office colleagues have been asking how and why they have been selected for redundancy with some feeling they have been targeted for having had periods of sickness or a disability.

“This is not the right way for one of the UK’s largest private sector employers to handle job cuts of this scale.”