John Lewis confirms plans to cut workforce over the next five years
John Lewis has confirmed to ITV News that it will be looking to reduce the size of its workforce as part of a wider plan to "return to profit" over the next five years.
It follows a Guardian report, published on Saturday, that said the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) was looking to slash up to 11,000 jobs - 10% of its workforce - across the group’s head office, supermarkets and department stores.
The statement to ITV News did not confirm the number of jobs that would be cut.
It 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."
The Guardian detailed that "rising pay and other costs and poor sales" are a few of the reasons behind the decision, as the company battles to bounce back from a £230m full-year loss.
In a series of messages seen by ITV News from the John Lewis intranet, employees voiced their frustration at the news.
"How does the way this decision has been announced and timed, with the opportunity for no debate at all, sit with our Democratic Vitality principles of sharing Knowledge, Power and Partner Opinion?" one person wrote.
Another said: "After reading this announcement I am angry and dismayed that our 'Leadership Team' think that the way this decision has been reached and communicated is acceptable, especially as we are about to go through a period of change with what a lot of Partners are now assuming will involve numerous redundancies... When are we going to start being honest and admit that we are a Partnership in name only."
The company has cut thousands of jobs since it launched its turnaround plan almost four years ago, through the closure of high street stores as well as head office redundancies.
On Thursday, it was announced that the company is to halve its redundancy pay package for workers as the troubled retail giant continues to slash costs as part of its major overhaul.
The move has ratcheted up concerns that more job cuts could be imminent at the retail group, which runs the department store chain and Waitrose grocery business.
Workers were informed on Thursday morning that the group will water down part of its partnership redundancy pay plan.
It said the group’s redundancy pay package, which gives workers two weeks of redundancy pay for every year at the business, will be reduced by half to provide one week of pay per year as a partner.
This is in addition to statutory redundancy pay.
JLP said the move will provide it with more funds to put towards supporting its budgets and could be put towards its next pay review.
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