Top British Company Announces Partnership With Wipro; Is It Going To Be A Concern For Employees?

In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, the John Lewis Partnership has announced a new partnership with one of top Indian tech giants - Wipro. 

As per Computing.co reports, this will see Wipro providing infrastructure services to the top British firm to help it expand its digital presence and also support its future business strategy.

With this partnership, Wipro will deliver tech infrastructure services which includes cloud hosting, end user compute, networks, and an internal help desk to serve the retailer's 80,000 staff members.

While speaking about this new approach, John Lewis  assured that outsourcing the management of its IT infrastructure to Indian firm will ensure up-to-date technologies and specialist expertise. 

"Consumer behaviour is changing and in a post-Covid-19 world we need to be more agile, adapting more quickly to change. Wipro will support us in the delivery of that ambition, ensuring that we always have access to up-to-date technologies and specialist expertise," said Mike Sackman, Chief Information Officer at the John Lewis Partnership.

In this partnership deal, John Lewis will transfer 244 of its non-customer facing staff to Wipro in November, Computing.co further reports. These shifting of employees will be made under the 'Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment' regulations (TUPE). It will act as a measure that preserves employees' terms and conditions.

The staff, who are being outsourced, will continue to work with the John Lewis Partnership in their new roles. Also, they will be entitled to the same salary and continuous service terms, but will no longer have access to privileges.

After this new announcement was made, many of these staff are now concerned about their future in the company. "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?" one employee told the Evening Standard.

As per media reports, this Partnership's outsourcing decision comes a day after chairwoman Sharon White wrote a letter to 80,000 partners and informed them that the company is unlikely to reopen in near future which would result in hundreds of job losses.

Further in her mail, Sharon White stated that John Lewis' online sales, which were 40 percent, have now shifted to 100 percent due to the pandemic and crisis. Following which, she added that the company needs to change its business strategy.