Workers at the grocer’s Waltham Point distribution centre have voted in favour of industrial action, which will include “a series” of 24-hour strikes.

It comes after a ballot of the 380 Usdaw members who work at the depot. Almost three-quarters of the 250 staff who voted backed plans to walk out.

Details of the policy Sainsbury’s has implemented are currently unclear. But Usdaw said it hoped that the supermarket giant would “return to the negotiating table”.