Waitrose and John Lewis staff are ‘frightened’ over redundancy pay cuts

GMB Union represents hundreds of workers within John Lewis Stores and Waitrose.

John Lewis and Waitrose workers are ‘frightened’ after the company announced it was slashing redundancy pay in half.

Workers at John Lewis Partnership are worried the move will precede a round of redundancies at the new, lower rate.

Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer said, “Our members at John Lewis Partnership [JLP] are worried; they are frightened about their futures.

“JLP discourages workers from joining unions, but many have still joined for exactly this eventuality.

“We understand the works council meet this week and will be asked to rubber-stamp the redundancy changes as well as potentially be informed of job cuts.

“JLP are saying this is cost-neutral and savings will be passed directly into partner wages, but this is little consolation for any of our members who ends up losing our jobs.

“They are supposed to be ‘partners’ rather than workers but they have not been consulted about these changes at all.

“The more staff join GMB, the less chance managers will be able to get away with these sort of power moves in future.”