NEXT should pay wages and enough hours of
work for people to live on and as a starting point they should pay £7.65 per
hour and £8.80 per hour in London says GMB, the union for retail
workers.
GMB will hold a public protest today
Thursday 22nd May outside NEXT Glasgow store. It is
calling on NEXT to pay wages and enough hours of work for people to live on.
GMB is seeking, as a starting point, £7.65 per hour and £8.80 per hour in
London. NEXT employ 50,000 workers at over 500 stores, call centres and
warehouses in the UK and Ireland
In March NEXT reported a 12% increase in
annual profits to £695m. NEXT says it expects profits in 2014 to rise by up to
£770m. NEXT said January that it is generating more cash than can be invested
in the business so it will pay a special £300m pay out to shareholders.
NEXT currently pay £6.33 per hour to those 21
and over and £5.47 to those aged 18 to 20. GMB is aware of that many jobs are
for12.5
hours per week or less in some stores. Some store staff may get a bonus which
the company claim can amount to an additional 4 per cent to 7 per cent on
hourly rates. Staff hourly rates will also increase by 37p from 1st June. This
will leave the majority of staff well below a living wage of £7.65 per hour and
£8.80 per hour in London.
Mick Rix, GMB National Officer for retail
staff, said “GMB is calling on NEXT to pay wages and enough hours of work for
people to live on. As a starting point, we are demanding £7.65 per hour and
£8.80 per hour in London.GMB asks shoppers to support diverting a special £300m
pay out to shareholders and spend it instead to offer jobs with longer hours
per week and to pay staff a living wage.
It is time NEXT made work pay. If this was
done, staff would not need their meagre wages to be topped up by taxpayers with
family tax credits and housing benefits so as to make ends meet.
That NEXT is over-subscribed when it offers jobs
is a reflection on the level of youth unemployment not that NEXT jobs are so
good”.
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