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Managers at Kwik Save will today find out if the company is to be placed into administration after asking staff to forego wages for a second week.

The budget supermarket chain has not paid workers' wages for the last week, and yesterday a court in Manchester said unless it could secure the same commitment for the next seven days the administrators would be called in later today.

Kwik Save has already announced the closure of 81 of its stores, with the future of its 145 remaining outlets also uncertain.

In recent years the company has struggled to compete with the budget-food line ranges on offer from its larger supermarket rivals.

Retail union Usdaw admitted that workers at Kwik Save were today being placed in a "very difficult situation".

"If they agree then they face another week of mounting debts but if they don't then the company goes under and they then have to wait to get money [from the government]," said the union's national officer Joanne McGuinness.
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"Usdaw members are being asked by their store managers if they are willing to work for another week unpaid and our members will have to make their own minds up whether their own circumstances means they can go another week without wages."

Ms McGuinness went on to say that Usdaw had asked managers at Kwik Save to grant workers "short-term loans" so the possibility of working unpaid for another week remained realistic.

"This is an unprecedented situation that has caused our members incredible financial hardship so we want the court to reach a decision tomorrow removing months of uncertainty and allow our members to move on or get back to selling goods in their stores," she concluded.