Toggle high contrast

Breakthrough in the BHS pension saga

Report type
Research and reports
Issue date

USDAW and campaign site Care2 join with us to hand in a petition of over 100,000 names to Philip Green as part of the campaign

Philip Green has agreed to pay £363 million of his own money to plug the massive hole in BHS’ pension scheme, resulting from his time as owner of the high street retailer.

This settlement comes after months of campaigning from shop workers’ union USDAW, MPs and the Pensions Regulator, and over 100,000 of us coming together to tell Philip Green to live up to his promise to sort the pension scheme.

Our public pressure made it hard for him to dodge his responsibilities to BHS pensioners. He was embarrassed into putting his hands in his pocket and pay over £100 million more than his initial offer.

John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary says: "We are pleased that Sir Philip has finally put his hand in his pocket, having promised to 'sort' the pension scheme last June. It is difficult to understand why this saga has been allowed to continue and why we have had to campaign for so long to get justice for our members.”

“We hope this settlement will provide the BHS pensioners with a better deal than they would have got through the Pension Protection Fund, which is welcome if long overdue news."

In a statement, Sir Philip Green has said: "Once again I would like to apologise to the BHS pensioners for this last year of uncertainty. I hope that this solution puts their minds at rest and closes this sorry chapter for them."

Hopefully, this campaign will send a message to all employers that it is not acceptable to shirk away from the responsibilities to workers, current or retired.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).

Setup now