It has been reported that the John Lewis Partnership is debating cutting 11,000 staff jobs, 10 per cent of its workforce, over the next five years, after it halved its redundancy terms.
The employee-owned partnership has told its partners it is going to halve its two-week redundancy pay per year, highlighting that it was “higher than typical market practice and comes at a very high cost”.
In an internal memo, first reported by the Telegraph, the John Lewis Partnership stated: “Against all of our competing priorities for investment, it’s fair to say that the high cost of redundancy pay has been one of the things that’s prevented us from moving as quickly as we’ve wanted to transform ourselves for the future, and has restricted our ability to invest more in pay.”
John Lewis Partnership appointed Peter Ruis as Executive Director, to lead the retailer into 2024 and beyond.
Earlier this month, ERT reported that the partnership had rehired a former director and CEO of Jigsaw as it attempts to bring back the good times.
It has also been reported, by The Times, that the Partnership has raised almost £260 million to fund its turnaround by taking on new bank debt and selling and leasing 11 Waitrose stores.
In a statement the retailer said: “The John Lewis Partnership has a plan to return to profit, which involves investing heavily to enhance our customer offer, technology, stores and becoming more efficient. This is working and performance is improving, but as we have already announced, that sadly means reducing the number of Partners we need in our business.
“It would be inappropriate to discuss details and our Partners will be the first to know about any changes.”
