DE4CC0DE-5FC3-4494-BCBF-4D50B00366B5
Retail

AB Foods Rejects £30m UK Bonus For Bringing Back Primark Staff

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Share this article
AB Foods Rejects £30m UK Bonus For Bringing Back Primark Staff

Associated British Foods has said that it does not plan to take advantage of a British government scheme to pay employers for bringing back staff from furlough for its Primark outlets, eschewing a bonus of about £30 million.

Primark closed all of its stores in March when the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe intensified, costing it about £650 million in net sales a month.

Across Europe 68,000 staff received furlough payments from governments, without which it said it would have been forced to make most redundant.

It has since reopened stores, including sites in Britain last month, where around 30,000 employees were furloughed.

Job Retention Bonus

"I can confirm that Primark does not intend to take advantage of support under the Job Retention Bonus announced by the Chancellor this week," a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The company removed its employees from government employment support schemes in the UK and Europe in line with the reopening of the majority of its stores. The company believes it should not be necessary therefore to apply for payment under the Bonus scheme on current circumstances."

The bonus scheme, which could cost up to £9 billion if employers brought back all 9 million people who have been on furlough, was announced on Wednesday and also applies retroactively.

News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

Get the week's top grocery retail news

The most important stories from European grocery retail direct to your inbox every Thursday

Processing your request...

Thanks! please check your email to confirm your subscription.

By signing up you are agreeing to our terms & conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.