Axe hovers over John Lewis IT jobs

The Reg understands that an "increase in efficiency" at John Lewis's Computer Services team could involve job cuts.

Computer Services at John Lewis handles the back-end IT for John Lewis, Waitrose, johnlewis.com and waitrose.com.

It would appear that over 100 jobs in the department are facing the axe. A reader has told us that the company have started a 90-day consultation process for making staff there redundant, and 90-day consultation processes are required in cases where companies are laying off more 100 people.

We put these figures to John Lewis and asked if they could specifically deny that they had started a 90-day consultation process or give us an accurate figure for the number of employees likely to lose their jobs.

John Lewis spokesman Neil Spring said that the company could not confirm these details:

We are currently implementing a Partnership programme to update, improve and standardise Corporate Computer Services.  This programme will significantly increase the Partnership’s efficiency and consistency in line with our customers' needs. We cannot confirm anything regarding structure, at present, as consultations with Partners are ongoing.

Spring added that the programme was being done "in line with best practice" and that consultations with partners were "ongoing". ®