Andy
Street quit as the boss of John Lewis last year to
try to become the mayor of the West Midlands. If elected in May, he
plans to turn back to his former employer in an attempt to
revolutionise public services. Street is looking to bring the
company’s employee-owned partnership model into vital local
services such as transport, social care and skills training, handing
workers a stake in their performance.
The
Conservative mayoral candidate said he could spin off existing
services into new mutually owned operations, provide funding for
these and social enterprises to compete for contracts, and allow
existing mutuals, enterprises and charities to take on public work.
Mutuals are fully or majority owned by members, while social
enterprises work to support communities or the environment.
And
how different will it be?
It
seems the so-called partner workers at the John Lewis and Waitrose
Stores will be ''asked'' to cut their fellow workers jobs and
conditions again just recently in the interests of modernisation and
the commercial interests of the firm.
John
Lewis is
to axe nearly 800 jobs in its customer restaurants and store
administration. In an effort to reduce costs, the group shut
some staff canteens about a year ago and
introduced longer shifts for delivery drivers. The cuts come just
weeks after Waitrose, John Lewis’s sister company, revealed
plans to close six stores and remove a level of management in its
supermarkets, putting nearly 700 jobs at risk.
Operating
profits slumped 31% despite a 4.5% rise in sales in the six months to
the end of July as the company invested heavily in equipment to
support its online business and increasing pay for staff.
Last
year the staff bonus was 10%, the lowest for 13 years. This year’s
lower bonus will be known on 9 March.
Hat-tip
Libcom
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