A SUPERMARKET warehouse in Swindon has been slammed for how it treated workers on the day of the Queen's funeral.

Iceland's distribution centre on Penzance Drive has been accused of asking workers to use up one of their holiday days if they wanted to have time off to watch the historic procession on Monday.

GXO, the company which manages the workforce in the centre, said it made allowances for some staff to observe the public holiday.

But one anonymous source told the Adver: "It's an insult. We could have the day off but only if we used up paid holiday.

"They granted the time off to some people but not everyone, then we were told afterwards that if you did take that day off, it will not be recognised as paid leave.

"People here are really angry about this - a lot of my friends, family, and other colleagues wanted to pay their respects, it was a historic event.

"Monday was declared a public holiday by the King himself, and other supermarkets like Aldi and Sainsbury's shut and gave their staff a paid extra day off.

"The Queen knighted Iceland's boss, Sir Malcolm Warner, and this is how he repays her, disgraceful."

A peak of 37.5 million people in the UK watched Queen Elizabeth II's final journey to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service and the procession through London towards Windsor which followed.

Monday September 19 was declared a national bank holiday to allow people, businesses, and other organisations to pay their respects to the UK's longest-reigning monarch on the final day of the country's mourning period.

A spokesman for GXO said: "We have taken all possible steps to enable our employees to observe Her Late Majesty’s state funeral without affecting existing arrangements with our customers. 

"GXO has run a reduced schedule during the bank holiday to enable as many of employees as possible to take time off or work shorter shifts. 

"Where possible, employees were able to substitute their bank holiday shift for other time slots.

“Due to the nature of grocery fulfilment, some employees were serving our supermarket customers to minimise disruption and ensure people across the UK have access to fresh food the following day."

The government's announcement of the bank holiday added: "This will operate in the same way as other bank holidays, and there is no statutory entitlement to time off.

"Employers may include bank holidays as part of a worker’s leave entitlement."