John Lewis staff to receive combined £40m windfall
A total of about 69,000 staff members at John Lewis will share a £40 million windfall, which has given by the company after it realised that it has been underpaying employees for years, this month.
A call centre employee discovered the error and informed the firm that it has been accidentally underpaying employees for seven years. Employees are to receive windfalls of up to £4,000 to cover up the shortfalls for the years. The figure of £40 million includes repayments plus national insurance and other associated costs. The discovery will also add a further £7 million for future pension liabilities of the partnership, which also owns Waitrose supermarket chain.
The company said that it has realised that the employees were set to receive premiums for working on Sunday or bank holidays but were not paid correctly under the Working Time Regulations legislation. John Lewis is the largest example of co-ownership in the UK and has 85,500 staff members, who are also partners in the firm.
A spokesperson for the department store said, "We periodically review our holiday pay policies but it also was raised by one of our partners at a similar time."