Did Waitrose furlough staff?

[Tomeeornottomee]

Just had a conversation with a friend of mine about furlough and which companies did or didn’t pay their staff when they weren’t able to go in (shielders/childcare etc) I was under the impression that John Lewis and Waitrose furloughed their staff but friend insists that they didn’t and their staff were put on unpaid leave if they couldn’t work.
If this is true the. I’m really shocked that such a high profile company didn’t treat their staff very well at all!
So... is there any Waitrose/John Lewis workers on here who can tell me who is right and who is wrong?

A quick google tells me they furloughed staff in the first lockdown but didn't furlough them even the scheme was extended this time last year. That might've been because they had already made redundancies though as the extension was announced late.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/primark-john-lewis-waitrose-furlough-workers-during-pandemic-2020-4%3famp

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2020/11/john-lewis-chooses-not-furlough-workers-exposing-rishi-sunak-s-big-mistake

I’m a waitrose worker and most of John Lewis were redeployed to work at Waitrose stores in two weeks rotas, if you refused without reason (eg shielding or too far and don’t drive etc) then I believe some people were indeed put on unpaid leave. All they had to do to keep full pay was work a few days a month at a nearby Waitrose basically :)

Wasn't Waitrose open throughout?

So what about people who worked in the supermarkets but had no childcare? Or were told to shield? What happened to them? Seriously reconsidering doing my big Xmas shop in M&S instead of Waitrose!

Waitrose was a essential shop though so was open throughout. I suspect that a lot of people that were essential workers still couldn’t work because shielding or childcare reasons . Don’t forget when furlough started flexi furlough wasn’t on it was furlough or no furlough so I’m guessing that wasn’t really suitable for essential shops . In my opinion furlough was for businesses that couldn’t trade Waitrose could.

Oh I see. So does that mean that every supermarket/essential worker who couldn’t get to work for whatever reason due to covid basically had to go on benefits?

I’m a waitrose worker and if you genuinely couldn’t work you either got your basic contracted pay in most cases or sick pay if you were just refusing to work because you didn’t want to redeployed to a waitrose rather than John Lewis. The partnership has been very accommodating and fair to both Waitrose and John Lewis staff through the pandemic IMO

I spoke to a JL staffer shortly before lockdown #1 and he said they were shortly being redeployed to Waitrose, which was (understandably) busier than usual.

@Tomeeornottomee

Oh I see. So does that mean that every supermarket/essential worker who couldn’t get to work for whatever reason due to covid basically had to go on benefits?

My son works at an essential retailer (not supermarket). People who couldn't work because of childcare were furloughed. It took a while to work out if they would use contracted hours or actual hours worked but they used actual hours worked which is fair enough.

aha. ok so i think i have had my terminology wrong.. i took furloughing to be open to anyone who couldn't work due to covid. so John Lewis etc had their own way of doing it rather than going through the government! i love being right, lol...my friend insisted that waitrose staff got no pay. i can go buy my treats with a clear conscience