John Lewis workers dish out abusive comments as they await staff cuts

John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, has threatened staff with disciplinary action after a slew of "unacceptable comments" were posted on its internal forum as workers prepare for mass job cuts. 

The company has said workers writing "abusive, hurtful and simply unacceptable" comments on its intranet would be called to meetings with their managers.

The Partnership, run by Chairman Dame Sharon White, said there was a "significant and understandable strength of feeling about recent announcements but that’s not an excuse for some of the abuse we’ve seen", according to The Telegraph. As a result, any offensive conduct such as harassment would be treated as a disciplinary matter.

John Lewis added: "The intranet is not a social media platform. It’s a business channel and should be treated as such by every partner."

This comes after John Lewis staff learned about plans to slash up to 11,000 role through the media. The retailer confirmed plans to further slash its workforce over the next five years and warned of reduced redundancy payouts and pay cuts as part of its complete overhaul.

The company employs over 76,000 workers who are expected to be affected by changes. Out of £10.5 billion in revenues, for its last full year, John Lewis spent £1.8 billion on staff. Therefore, pay is one of John Lewis’s largest costs.

These changes threatened to spark a staff walkout as employees demand answers. In a letter to John Lewis, GMB said: "As the union that represents John Lewis workers, we call on you to meet urgently with us to discuss these changes and to give your workforce the meaningful representation they clearly need."