Petition urges Philip Green to tackle BHS pension deficit

Former BHS workers and trade union representatives will deliver petition with 100,000 signatures to Green’s Arcadia HQ
  
  

A BHS store in Newport in July
A BHS store in Newport in July. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Former BHS workers and trade union representatives are to descend on the headquarters of Sir Philip Green’s retail business in an attempt to force him to fill the £571m deficit in the collapsed department store chain’s pension scheme.

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the billionaire tycoon to fulfil his promise to “sort” the scheme. The petition will be delivered to Green’s Arcadia business on Wednesday by John Hannett, the general secretary of the shopworkers’ trade union Usdaw.

Green promised to deal with the problems facing the pension scheme when he appeared before MPs in June. However, he has failed to agree a deal with the Pensions Regulator, which has now launched legal proceedings against Green and Dominic Chappell, the former owners of BHS.

Hannett said Green needed to pump more than £250m into the scheme, which has more than 20,000 members, calling anything less “derisory”.

He said: “Our priority is to see Sir Phillip do the right thing and deliver on his promise to ‘sort’ the pension fund. If he wants to recover any reputational credibility he must not haggle his way out of his responsibilities, he must make a full contribution and do it quickly. That is the least he can do for former staff, many of whom spent their entire working life at BHS.”

The petition that will be delivered to Arcadia – which controls Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge – includes comments from BHS workers such as: “This man’s greed is unbelievable and I worked for him.”

BHS collapsed in April leading to the loss of 11,000 jobs and to the £571m pension deficit. A parliamentary investigation into the demise of the retailer found that BHS had been systematically plundered under Green and Chappell.

Green controlled the business for 15 years until he sold it to Chappell, a three-time bankrupt, for £1 in March 2015. Green, his family and other BHS shareholders collected at least £580m from the retailer, while Chappell’s company Retail Acquisitions was paid an estimated £17m.

 

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