{"id":165940,"date":"2020-03-25T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/next-offers-staff-20-bonus-to-staff-working-during-lock-down\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T12:05:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T12:05:10","slug":"next-offers-staff-20-bonus-to-staff-working-during-lock-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/next-offers-staff-20-bonus-to-staff-working-during-lock-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Next offers staff 20% bonus to staff working during lock-down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Next is offering staff a 20% boost to their pay if they <strong>volunteer to pick stock during the retail lock-down<\/strong> to keep its e-commerce business operating.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The retailer is asking workers to <strong>travel to shuttered stores and pick clothes,<\/strong>\u00a0according to a letter seen by the PA news agency.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>worried staff have questioned whether picking clothes is an \u201cessential\u201d job<\/strong> at the same time the Government has called for all non-essential workers to temporarily avoid unnecessary travel.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday night that the public \u201cmust stay at home\u201d unless they work in a key sector or industry.<\/p>\n<p>This includes some shops such as grocers, pharmacies, pet shops, bicycle shops and hardware stores, among others. See the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close\/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close-guidance\"> full list of essential and non-essential retailers here. <\/a>But <strong>retailers are still permitted to trade online.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A letter sent to Next employees on Tuesday evening said: \u201cWe<strong> need to keep the online business functioning<\/strong> to be certain that Next emerges from this short term crisis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo help us, we are looking for <strong>a small number of staff to attend work to pick and process the stock<\/strong> in our stores that customers have purchased online and keep the online business going.<strong> We will only look to achieve this on a voluntary basis.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bosses also lay out a series of measures to <strong>ensure social distancing and a clean work space,<\/strong> including limits on the number of people in each store and rules that items are only touched by one person.<\/p>\n<p>The letter added: \u201cWe fully understand that many of you have great concerns about attending work. Please let me reassure you that <strong>we are in no circumstances going to ask anyone who is unsure about coming to work to do so.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many workers in the retail and construction sectors have said they feel they have little choice but to head to work, leading to images of overcrowded trains emerging on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Next said in the letter: \u201c<strong>We desperately need your support to keep the company operating<\/strong> and we hugely appreciate your help in this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there are any reasons why you personally feel that it is not appropriate for you to work, we will be understanding. For example if you are caring for a vulnerable person at your home, if you cannot manage your childcare, if you cannot travel safely to work, or any other reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Further on, it said: \u201cTo show our appreciation,<strong> if you attend work you will be paid an additional 20% of your basic rate of pay<\/strong> for all hours worked until Saturday 11 April.<\/p>\n<p>Up until last week, Next was telling staff on its internal systems that the retailer considered its \u201coperations as essential\u201d. However it voluntarily shut its stores before it was mandated to do so by the Government.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_110595\" style=\"width: 607px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110595\" class=\" wp-image-110595\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lord-Wolfson-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Next\" width=\"597\" height=\"796\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-110595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lord Wolfson<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Next chief executive and Conservative peer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/next-chief-lord-wolfson-calls-for-government-action-on-wages-and-jobs\/\">Lord Simon Wolfson said a week ago<\/a> he wanted the Government to step up its efforts to support workers and warned of a hit to the non-food sector not seen since the 1973 oil crisis.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Next said on Wednesday: \u201cA very small number of staff at any one time are required to help with online orders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThis will enable social distancing whilst these tasks are performed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He also stressed the new <strong>arrangements are completely voluntary<\/strong> and no-one is under any obligation to turn up to work.<\/p>\n<p>On the group\u2019s essential status, he added: \u201cThe Government has now told us otherwise and before it did, Next had already closed all its stores.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes after <strong>Sports Direct faced heavy criticism over its initial attempts to claim to be \u201cessential\u201d<\/strong> in keeping the nation fit during the lockdown.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/sports-direct-u-turns-and-announces-its-stores-will-close\/\">Bosses later retreated<\/a>, although not before raising the prices on dozens of exercise products.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday upscale department store <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/fenwick-suspends-e-commerce-operations-due-to-covid-19\/\">Fenwick announced was suspending its online operations<\/a> due to the fact that its orders were hand-picked and wrapped and not shipped from large warehouses. Fenwick had also closed all of its stores before the Government ordered lock-down.<\/p>\n<p>Read all of our COVID-19 stories in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/newsinsight\/covid-19\/\">dedicated content hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":130098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16042,10585,6,10494],"tags":[5202,5707,10530,3683,10259],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Next offers staff 20% bonus to staff working during lock-down - TheIndustry.fashion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Next is offering staff a 20% boost to their pay if they volunteer to pick stock during the retail lock-down to keep its e-commerce business operating. 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