John Lewis threatened with strike by staff over looming job cuts

Dame Sharon White said “difficult decisions” needed to be made to protect the future of the partnership. Photo: Terry Murden/Alamy Stock Photo

This will be the first step towards a strike: workers will first be asked if they are willing to go on strike over the issue, to help the union gather views on how to move forward.

Around 250 John Lewis Partnership workers are believed to be members of the GMB union.

A John Lewis spokesman said: “We have just received the letter and will respond to GMB.”

This is because Relations between the retailer and its employees are becoming increasingly strained due to impending job cuts, which many employees have learned about through media reports.

Workers have asked for more details about the plans, including calling for the partnership to release recordings of an internal meeting last week at which John Lewis chief finance officer Bérenger Michel presented some of the arguments for the change.

John Lewis has not yet announced the extent of the upcoming cuts to all of its staff, although last week employees confirmed that they would have to reduce the number of staff.

Department heads are reportedly working on plans to cut staff. 11,000 positions, corresponding to 10% of the total workforce. Dame Sharon White and chief executive Nish Kankiwala said «difficult decisions» needed to be made to protect the future of the partnership.

The planned cuts come after the partnership decided to halve redundancy payments to make job cuts more affordable. Staff responded to the news on internal forums, saying they planned to consult with unions.

Late last month, Dame Sharon told staff to prepare for «some pretty big and some pretty bold changes.»

One of John Lewis' biggest costs is on staff, with a total of £1.8 billion spent on staff in the last financial year.

The growing threat of industrial action follows criticism from union bosses last week over how the partnership negotiated redundancy pay changes.

The GMB also accused John Lewis of discouraging workers from joining unions, which the partnership rejected. It has its own partnership council, where staff elect representatives to vote on policy changes.

John Lewis said staff were «free to join a trade union». The spokesperson added that «as an employee-owned organization, we… provide many of the benefits of a union at no cost.»