The John Lewis Partnership remains determined to reinstate its employee bonus “as soon as possible”, in light of renewed calls from thousands of current and former workers to bring back the annual perk.
It follows the launch of a campaign by a group of disgruntled John Lewis employees calling for the retailer to “Bring Back the Bonus” for John Lewis and Waitrose staff. The group have published an open letter addressed to John Lewis executive director Peter Ruis, and published a petition via social campaign website Organise.com.
The campaign, which was first reported by the FT, argues that as the retailer tripled its profits last year, it should reinstate the annual bonus, which has not been paid since 2022.
“We’re working harder than ever, with fewer staff and growing workloads, but getting less recognition,” the letter claimed. “The bonus meant something more than just money. It was a sign that the company saw and appreciated us.”
At the time of writing, 4,171 people had signed the petition. However, it is unclear how many of these are current or former partners.
The partnership defended its decision not to pay an annual bonus. Instead, it had focused on improving employees’ base pay – with a 7.4% pay rise in 2025 – and on making further improvements to its stores and supply chain as part of its ongoing turnaround plan, it said.
“Our bonus remains an important feature of our employee ownership model, and we’ve publicly stated that we are determined to pay one as soon as possible,” a spokeswoman said.
“We’re proud of our varied and unique benefits package and we want to do much more to recognise our brilliant Partners.”
It echoes the words of partnership chairman Jason Tarry during the partnership’s annual results call in March, who insisted that JLP would look to reinstate the bonus “as soon as possible”.
The partnership said it had discussed the proposals in detail with partners at the time. Senior leaders had also forgone a bonus and had also declined pay rises during the years the partnership was loss making, it said.
The petition comes ahead of JLP’s annual AGM on 12 June.
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