in for spring: Next Staggering profit leaves workers dry
Today, retail giant NEXT announced yet another record-breaking year for profits.
After last year’s £1.08 bn and updating their profit forecast to £1.15 bn for this year, the final amount of £1.158 billion represents a staggering cash injection to the pockets of NEXT shareholders.
The past financial year has been a busy one for the company to say the least.
In May, NEXT shut down its own factory in Sri Lanka and fired over 1400 unionised garment workers with no trade union consultation, despite having a landmark collective bargaining agreement in the facility with FTZ GSU union. Then over the summer, NEXT CEO and lifetime peer in the House of Lords Simon Wolfson worked hard in the unelected chamber to weaken workers’ rights regulations while the Employment Rights Act was making its way through Parliament. In October, Wolfson also chose to cash in on an additional £7 million when he sold 50,000 of his NEXT shares topping up his already hefty £4.72 million pay package as CEO of the company.
This level of wealth is in stark contrast to the wages of NEXT retail workers in the UK, who are not paid a real living wage, and others across their global supply chain who are even further from a wage sufficient for a decent standard of living. NEXT’s CEO makes more than 219 times what a UK retail assistant makes annually, and a staggering 3691 times the wage that the Sri Lankan workers made before losing their jobs. NEXT’s 2025 profits alone could have paid to keep the fired Katunayake workers in employment for a mind-boggling 638 years.
In Sri Lanka, the minimum wage is barely a third of a real living wage and workers’ wages in terms of value are only now matching their 2010 levels after a period of severe inflation6. The 400,000 garment workers in Sri Lanka could benefit from a life-changing 276.8% pay increase if NEXT’s profits were shared among them.
Alternatively, if this £1.158 billion profit was redistributed amongst 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh, they would see a 31.7% increase to their staggeringly low salaries, closing two thirds of the shameful gap between a real living wage for the country’s severely underpaid workers.
No trickle down for workers.
NEXT says ‘opportunities for change and growth now present themselves in virtually every area of the business’, but where are the opportunities for growing the take-home pay for the garment workers that make the backbone of NEXT’s profitable business?
No living wages, no union rights
NEXT has not committed to a roadmap to living wages. And while it recognises Freedom of Association as a pillar of its Code of Practice, the company’s business decisions cast heavy doubt over the seriousness of its commitment to independent trade unions as a vehicle for improving workers’ pay and conditions. NEXT continues to source from Myanmar where a military coup has made compliance with human rights, including freedom of association, practically impossible according to global unions.
Once again, NEXT has shown that profits don’t trickle down to workers even when business is booming. Instead, wealth is hoarded at the top, with the people further down the supply chain seeing little to celebrate at this year’s announcement.