May 15, 2019
John Lewis pension change to save £80m
Staff at the John Lewis Partnership have backed a series of pension reforms that includes closing the group's generous defined benefit scheme in favour of cheaper defined contribution arrangements. The vote in favour of the changes, which was unanimous, was made by the Partnership Council, a group of 58 people that represent over 80,000 staff or partners. The existing defined benefit scheme, to which staff do not have to contribute, will close next year. A John Lewis spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether the revisions to the pension plan would swell the annual staff bonus, which in March was cut to 3 per cent of salary, its lowest level since the 1950s. At the time of the last bonus announcement, outgoing Partnership chairman Charlie Mayfield said that staff increasingly faced a choice between having money today in the form of bonuses or, at a later date, as a pension.
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