John Lewis outsourcing over 100 more IT jobs to third-party firm

John Lewis is outsourcing over 100 more IT roles and will transfer staff to global technology services giant Capgemini later this year.

The struggling department store is outsourcing another 111 IT rolls to a third-party company, just weeks after announcing that it would transfer a further 244 roles to Indian firm Wipro.

Once again this will see John Lewis employees, which it calls ‘partners’, be sent to Capgemini under the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment regulations (TUPE).

When the news broke that hundreds of staff would be transferred to Wipro earlier this month, staff said they feared for job security.

READ MORE: John Lewis staff concerned about job security after outsourcing IT roles to India

One staff member told the Evening Standard: “This has been on the cards for a while but comes at a very uncertain time. Wipro have promised to keep our jobs for 12 months but what happens after that?”

Under TUPE guidelines these staff will retain the same salary, sick pay and service terms of their current contract under TUPE guidelines.

However, staff will no longer have access to store discount and fuel cards, while key benefits for which the retailer is famous including its partner bonus and long-term leave are now under consultation.

John Lewis says this partnership will form an integral part of its new Technology and Change function, enabling the company to respond more quickly to rapidly changing digital demands.

This new team will eventually comprise of around 700 staff across various teams including technology, infrastructure, security and change.

“This new agreement represents an important development, both in the Partnership’s long standing relationship with Capgemini as well as the evolution of our Technology & Change team, as we become better equipped to support the Partnership’s future business strategy,” John Lewis chief information officer Mike Sackman said.

It comes less than a week after the department store announced that 1300 jobs were at risk as eight of its stores would remain shut following lockdown.

Click here to sign up to Charged‘s free daily email newsletter

CompaniesIndustry

RELATED POSTS

3 Comments. Leave new

  • NotPartnership
    July 16, 2020 10:49 am

    Kept quiet that of those 111, 80 are being made redundant immediately and the rest are likely to be as soon as they can offshore the knowledge.

    Reply
  • It’s really horrible situation now.
    I recently got an opportunity from Clariwell.in
    I wish everyone all the best !!

    Reply
  • Welcome to the world of software development, where highly skilled UK based developers are thrown away in favour of off shoring. In the 15 years i have been in this industry, 4/5 companies have taken this strategy. All you need to do is look at freelance projects on popular freelance sites to see the cost difference – a project bid of £200 from a UK developer which is underpriced to remain competitive, yet is still out bidded by an offshore developer who bids £30 for the same project… which one would you go for? It is the same issue with on site developers, the upper managers look at the expense of their teams and ask “why am I paying twice as much when I could cut costs and offshore?”.
    It is the bane of the industry, and like other industries – it is moving the skills away from the UK and making it less appealing as a future career option.

    It is not the first, and it will not the last. I truly feel for those in this situation.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.