John Lewis sets aside £36m to cover staff pay blunder

The John Lewis Partnership has booked a £36m hit as it investigates the scale of a blunder in its pay practices that could mean thousands of staff are eligible for payouts.

The employee-owned group, said the problem related to its practice of pay averaging over a year to ensure workers are paid a consistent amount each month.

John Lewis, which includes Waitrose, admitted it now believes that work - over the past six years - breached national minimum wage rules and it was in discussions with HM Revenue and Customs to resolve the issue and ensure future compliance with all minimum pay legislation.

It admitted it was not currently in a position to give a back pay total, adding its investigation could take some time to complete.

John Lewis said of the pay averaging: "This arrangement was implemented to support partners with a steady and reliable monthly income, but we now believe this arrangement may not meet the strict timing requirements for calculating compliance with the national minimum wage regulations.

"Once we have completed our detailed review, we will make any retrospective payments required to current and former partners affected."

John Lewis said it pays staff, known as partners, more than 20% above the National Living Wage on average.

Pay levels rose by 2.7% in April but partners were left disappointed when their annual bonus for 2016/17 came in at its weakest level for decades - with bosses blaming the need for investment instead to fight tougher trading conditions.

Its annual report showed that partnership chairman, Sir Charlie Mayfield, waived his pay rise for the current year and his latest bonus.

John Lewis is not the only retailer to have fallen foul of minimum pay rules in recent times with Tesco (Swiss: TSCO.SW - news) , Debenhams (Frankfurt: D2T.F - news) and Argos all having to rectify accidental shortfalls.