Fast track to disaster
Call to extend job furlough as high street cull ‘accelerates’
THE Government was last night urged to extend its furlough scheme as thousands more high street workers were culled in an “accelerating” jobs crisis.
Pizza Express plans to shut 67 sites and axe up to 1,100 staff, while Currys PC World owner Dixons Carphone will cut 800 roles.
The blows came just 24 hours after Sunderland-based Hays Travel announced 878 job cuts.
With the DW Sports collapse also putting 1,700 at risk, 4,500 roles have been put on the block in the first two working days of August.
And figures reveal at least 150,000 jobs have been cut or put at risk at more than 60 major British firms during lockdown. With Chancellor
Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme ending in October, the Government has been warned that job cuts to date will be the tip of the iceberg.
Shadow Business Minister Lucy Powell said: “The jobs crisis is clearly accelerating. It’s only Tuesday and this week we’ve heard of mass redundancies.
“The Government is pulling the rug out from beneath businesses by ending furlough support indiscriminately and prematurely. They must target support at the hardest-hit sectors or be responsible for more people losing jobs.”
TUC chief Frances O’Grady urged the Tories to “stop watching from the sidelines as thousands of high street jobs are lost”. She said: “We need urgent and targeted action to save livelihoods before it’s too late.
“That’s why the TUC is calling for the job retention scheme to be extended for businesses who need longer to get back on their feet.”
In the past week, some of our biggest brands – TUI, Selfridges,