M&S agrees 'improved' pay deal after row over planned changes

Business correspondent(wp/es):
Marks & Spencer today struck a deal with employees over pay and pensions changes after offering “significantly improved” terms in response to a lengthy campaign by staff and MPs.
The agreement, which has been signed off by the retailer’s employee representatives, includes a number of amendments to the proposals first tabled by M&S in May following criticism that long-serving staff were being unfairly punished.
A petition over the issue has attracted over 98,000 signatures, which a group of MPs, led by Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh who raised the issue in parliament in July, handed over to the company at its Marble Arch flagship yesterday.
The new deal still offers the original pay rise to £8.50 an hour for store staff, or £9.65 in Greater London, the removal of Sunday premiums and “standardised” Bank holiday pay of time-and-a-half.
However, there were concessions for the 10% of M&S’s 69,000 retail staff who were set to be worse off under the new terms.

As well as a “transition payment” to compensate staff along with another potential one-off payment to maintain existing remuneration until March 2019, M&S said from that same year, any worker set to see pay fall from current levels would get another additional payment of 50% of their reduction in total pay.
They will be offered guaranteed extra hours to make up the remaining 50% that will amount to no more than three hours a week.
A pensions overhaul to move staff on its “not sustainable” final salary pension scheme to a defined contribution plan is also going ahead, but M&S will extend the cash supplement support from the two years it originally offered to three years.

M&S, which introduced the overhaul in response to the National Living Wage, said the “significantly improved support means that all colleagues will either receive higher pay or the opportunity to maintain current pay level”.
Retail Director Sacha Berendji added: “We’ve listened to our colleagues, acted on their feedback and are pleased that we’ve reached an outcome that gives enhanced support for our colleagues as well as making necessary changes to our business.”

But an M&S employee who has worked at the chain for nearly 20 years, told the Standard the updated deal constituted only a “slight movement” and was “not enough”. He also expressed concern that failure to agree could result in his contract being terminated.
“I love my job and my customers and M&S are better than some. I just feel that we should be the company that benchmarks good practices for others and unfortunately we are not.”
McDonagh added: “What M&S is telling them is that even if they work longer hours to make up the difference, they will earn no more money in three years’ time than they do today. How is that fair?
“It would be a betrayal to loyal staff, many with more than two or three decades professional experience, to say that this is a very good offer for them.”

Man dies after being hit by train in south London

staff reporter(es/wp);
A man has died after he was hit by a train in Croydon this morning.
Ambulances and transport police rushed to Thornton Heath station just after 4.50am this morning but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers from British Transport Police are now trying to work out the identity of the man and inform his next of kin, a spokesman said.
They said his death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will now be put together for the coroner.
Five police cars were spotted outside Thornton Heath station, on Brigstock Road, this morning.

The Prime Minister said the country needs a period of stability after the shockwaves of the Brexit vote

political correspondent(es/wp):
Theresa May has insisted there will be no snap election before 2020 as she dashed Remain supporters’ hopes of a fresh vote before the EU withdrawal  process formally begins.
The Prime Minister said the country needs a period of stability after the shockwaves of the Brexit vote.
And in her first major interview since taking office, she said the UK should be prepared for “difficult times” ahead despite recent positive economic indicators.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I'm not going to be calling a snap election. I've been very clear that I think we need that period of time, that stability - to be able to deal with the issues that the country is facing and have that election in 2020.”
Mrs May, who said she will not formally trigger withdrawal negotiations by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty before the end of this year, acknowledged voters wanted to see the process under way.

"I'm very clear also that the British people don't want the issue of Article 50 being triggered just being kicked into the long grass because they want to know we're getting on with the job of - of putting Brexit into place and making a success of it."
She said the Scottish people did not want another vote on independence, and again firmly ruled out a second EU referendum.
The PM also warned it would not be "plain sailing" despite some encouraging economic data.
"We have had some good figures and better figures that some had predicted would be the case. I'm not going to pretend that it's all going to be plain sailing. I think we must be prepared for the fact that there may be some difficult times ahead. But what I am is optimistic."
Mrs May insisted controls on the movement of people from the EU to Britain needed to be imposed as part of an exit deal with Brussels.
She said: "What the vote, what leaving the European Union does enable us to do is, yes, to say what I think the British people are very clear about, which is that they don't want free movement to continue in the way that it has done in the past.
"They do want to see controls of movement of people coming in from the European Union. Now, obviously we're looking at what - what those options are, what that might be.

"But people also want to see the job opportunities, to see the economic opportunities, and so getting a good deal in trading goods and services is also obviously important for us," the PM said in an interview recorded in her constituency before she headed to China for the G20 summit.
Her comments come as Brexit Secretary David Davis is due to make a statement to the Commons this week on the government’s emerging position on the terms of withdrawal from Brussels.