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John Lewis Partnership employees will reportedly be given the opportunity to vote on chair Sharon White’s leadership this week, The Times has reported.
The news comes as the 9-10 May will see 60 employee representatives decide on the chairwoman’s current strategy during a council meeting, which will include two votes on her leadership, according to The Times.
While the current chairman cannot be dismissed from her role through this vote, the council would be able to remove her at any time if it deems she is failing to meet responsibilities.
The council vote comes after recent news that White is considering selling a stake in the partnership, which would undermine the retailer’s 70-year-old partnership model where some 74,000 employees own a stake in the company.
As a result, news of the plan provoked backlash, as the retailer’s ex-boss Andy Street also said that the end to this model would be a “tragedy”.
In addition, employees across Waitrose and John Lewis had to forgo their yearly bonus due to the group posting a £230m full-year loss.
Chris Earnshaw, president of the partnership council, told The Times: “Since 1919, the chairman has held sessions with our council to reflect on the performance. This is a routine part of our democratic process.”
John Lewis was contacted for a comment.
