John Lewis’s chair Jason Tarry to earn greater than £1.3m this yr

[ad_1] John Lewis’s chair, Jason Tarry, is to be paid greater than £1.3m this yr – a few fifth greater than his predecessor, Sharon White – as he takes a extra hands-on position.

The previous Tesco government, who joined the group that owns Waitrose and a fleet of shops in September final yr, earned £415,000 in his first 4 and a half months within the job, together with advantages and pension funds.

That put him on a par along with his predecessor, who earned £900,000 in fundamental pay and £1.1m together with pension and different advantages, based on the annual report from the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) which the Guardian has seen.

Nonetheless, the corporate mentioned Tarry’s pay had been “adjusted” from 1 April this yr in order that it was “equalised to the quantity paid to the chief government officer to mirror the recalibration of the position”.

John Lewis’s final chief government, Nish Kankiwala, who stepped down in March after two years within the position, is known to have acquired between £1.3m and £1.35m in complete remuneration final yr, because the group’s highest paid director. The chief government position not exists on the retailer.

That pay package deal was value 53 instances the typical fundamental pay of a non-management John Lewis employee.

A JLP spokesperson mentioned: “Following the merger of the CEO and chairman roles, the remuneration committee really helpful aligning the chairman’s compensation with that of the CEO. This displays the chairman’s expanded tasks in main each the manager staff and the partnership board.”

The bump in pay for Tarry comes as the corporate has elevated hourly pay for employees who got a 7.4% pay rise this yr, to a minimal charge of £11.55 an hour. That charge of pay places it behind main rivals equivalent to Marks & Spencer.

The group additionally diminished the typical variety of folks it employs by about 4,000 to 69,000 folks final yr, after a 3,500 discount the yr earlier than, and skipped the bonus to employees for the fourth time in 5 years this March even after underlying annual revenue rose from £42m to £126m.

The group can also be slicing prices by limiting advantages, equivalent to a reduction card, for former employees and promoting off its workers golf membership.

From 31 August, any leavers with greater than 15 years service will solely retain their advantages for a similar variety of years they labored for the group. Till now, leavers should have accrued between 15 and 25 years’ service and met sure different standards to obtain a lifetime low cost and entry to the group’s workers motels.

A JLP spokesperson mentioned: “We’re altering our leavers advantages to allow us to greater than double the variety of our Companions who're eligible. We’re extremely pleased with this package deal, which rewards loyalty and goes properly past these supplied by opponents.”

The corporate is within the midst of a turnaround plan after diving to a loss in the course of the Covid pandemic, when it was compelled to shut all shops throughout lockdowns.

It has pledged to open extra Waitrose shops this yr and spend money on current shops after closing 16 shops and not less than 20 Waitrose shops and slicing hundreds of head workplace jobs because the pandemic.