Primark announces further pay cuts for employees across the business

Primark has announced pay cuts to salaries for employees across the business, in a bid to prevent temporary redundancies as a result of the economic impact of coronavirus. 

The high street retailer has confirmed the introduced of a temporary 20% reduction in pay for Senior Executives, and a temporary 10% reduction for the remainder of employees across its HQ and office functions for the next 12 weeks.

The Primark Leadership Team is to take a temporary 30% pay cut, with CEO Paul Marchant also taking a 50% reduction in pay.

All employees who are on incentive schemes will not be receiving any bonuses this year.

Paul Marchant, CEO of Primark, said in a statement sent to TheIndustry.fashion:
"Our people are fundamental to the success of our business and we have not taken this decision lightly. By putting this temporary pay reduction in place, we are seeking to avoid the need for any other measures like temporary lay-offs or redundancy at this time.

"This is one of a number of steps we have taken in recent weeks to mitigate the impact of the £650m per month in lost sales due to COVID-19. We have informed suppliers that we will stop placing new product orders; engaged with landlords on our lease agreements; frozen recruitment; significantly reduced our discretionary capital and operating expenditure; and in many of our markets, we have had to furlough our store employees in line with the applicable local Government subsidy scheme.

"I am very proud of our people and the resilience and dedication that they have shown in recent weeks as we navigate this uncharted territory. We have overcome many challenges in the past 50 years in business and we look forward to getting through this together and getting back to normal trading again as soon as we can.”

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