John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary says: “This weekend marks the end of BHS, as the remaining staff go through the difficult and heart breaking task of dismantling stores that many of them have been in for most of their working lives. Wherever the blame lies for the demise of this once great British retailer, it certainly is not with the staff who are paying a high price for corporate decisions that have led us to where we are today.
“Sir Philip Green needs to honour the two promises he made to BHS staff and pensioners after the company went into administration. Firstly, to offer employment within the Arcadia Group to the blameless, dedicated and loyal staff who suddenly find themselves unemployed. Secondly, to ‘sort’ the pension scheme, we are still waiting to hear the details of what he proposes.
“The 11,000 loyal staff have been totally let down. There remains some very serious questions that need to be answered, by former owners of the business, about how a company with decades of history and experience in retail has now come to this very sorry end. In the meantime we are providing the support, advice and representation our members require at this difficult time.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion