Workers' rights shake-up 'could wreak havoc': Next boss Lord Wolfson sounds alarm over plans as backlash mounts
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Next’s boss has warned that Labour’s workers’ rights bill could cause ‘havoc’ – as evidence mounts that it is hurting business.
Lord Wolfson said the extra red tape involved could pose ‘a huge risk to employment’ by making it harder to offer flexible hours to some staff.
The comments from the High Street retailer’s chief executive came as a report by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) suggested a further slowdown in the private sector this spring – partly thanks to worries about the new regulations.
Rachel Reeves’s £25billion raid on employer National Insurance contributions (NIC) is also taking its toll, the CBI warned, as it said firms expect activity to fall over the next three months.
On Labour’s plan to introduce a raft of new workers’ rights – which will include a ban on so-called zero-hours contracts – Wolfson said: ‘If they get the details wrong, it could be a huge burden on employees and work against employees.’
He said that while the legislation could be ‘positive’, reforms entitling workers to contracts with a minimum number of weekly hours could go awry if the level is set too high, making it more difficult to employ students during term time, for example.
Jobs threat: Next boss Lord Wolfson (pictured) said the extra red tape involved could pose ‘a huge risk to employment’ by making it harder to offer flexible hours to some staff
Wolfson said that if the level is set at four hours ‘it won’t make a load of difference. If it is set at 12 hours, it will cause havoc’.
The Next boss, who made the comments as the company published full-year results, also took aim at the NIC hike, warning of the impact that it will have on ordinary consumers through higher prices and fewer jobs.
The employer rights’ bill also came under fire from peers yesterday. Entrepreneur and start-up investor Lord Londesborough said it represents ‘another vampire squid sucking the life out of our economy’ and would ‘damage jobs, productivity and wages across both the public and private sectors’.
Lord Hunt, a former Conservative employment secretary, said: ‘This bill is not only anti-business, in my view it is anti-worker.
'If it passes in anything like its current form, it could be more appropriate to call it an unemployment bill.’
It came a day after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) acknowledged the negative impact that the workers’ rights rules could have.
And CBI chairman Rupert Soames said this week that higher taxes and new rights for workers had left bosses ‘pretty p****d off’.
Soames said: ‘People bought into the idea that Labour would be the most pro-business government ever and clearly they aren’t.’
The economy has stagnated since Labour came to power in July and recent surveys suggest it has also been a dismal start to 2025.
A report from the CBI today shows private sector activity continued to fall in the three months to March – and will do so again in the second quarter of the year.
Alpesh Paleja, the CBI’s deputy chief economist, said firms ‘continue to tell us that the impact of higher employer NICs, the upcoming rise in the National Living Wage and concern over the Employment Rights Bill are weighing on activity and sentiment’.
In style: Next is just the fourth British retailer to reach the £1bn mark
Next has raked in profits of more than £1billion for the first time as it defies the gloom on the High Street.
The retailer’s chief executive Lord Wolfson said profits jumped 10 per cent to £1.01billion for the 12 months to January 25.
This was off the back of an 8.2 per cent jump in sales to £6.3billion.
Next is just the fourth British retailer behind Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q owner Kingfisher to have recorded profits of £1billion or more.
With sales in recent weeks rising more than expected, Wolfson also upgraded profit forecasts for this year by £20million to £1.07billion.
Next shares jumped 10.5 per cent, or 1049p, to a record high of 11035p – giving it a value of £13.6billion.
But Wolfson, 57, said it would be a ‘big mistake’ to be ‘overly impressed’ with its results, ‘not least because profits can go down as well as up’.
He added: ‘We are as positive about the company today as we were [a year ago], albeit in an environment where the risks to the wider UK economy are growing.’
When he took on the job in 2001, he was the youngest chief executive of a FTSE 100 company, aged 33. Shares have risen almost 14-fold on his watch.
Next said it will open ten stores this year and move six shops to new locations.
‘Next continues to defy gravity with its performance,’ said Shore Capital analyst David Hughes.
H&M, on the other hand, said its sales rose just 1 per cent in March as the world’s second largest fashion retailer’s spring and summer collections failed to excite customers.
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