But the retailer – which owns the John Lewis department store chain and Waitrose supermarkets – has warned that putting staff in the boardrooms is unlikely to deliver the improvement she appears to be hoping for. “We do not believe that encouraging or mandating employee representation on boards will, in isolation, create a strong system of corporate governance,” said the Partnership in a written response to the Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee. “The Partnership’s approach to corporate governance is effective due to the wider system of accountability which results from the business’s ownership structure,” responded the Partnership, which is owned by its 89,000 ‘partners’ who are its full-time employees. Legal & General, the UK’s biggest insurer which has £853bn of assets under management on behalf of more than 3,000 clients, all but ignored Mrs May’s suggestion in its submission, but did suggest making an existing director an “employee director”, accountable for understanding the views of staff and providing feedback to them.
UK retailer John Lewis, known for its progressive governance policies, has criticised plans by Prime Minister Theresa May to place workers on company boards. The firm warned in a written statement to the House of Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee that the move would not achieve the anticipated improvement in corporate governance. The firm attributed its own effective governance to the fact that the Partnership is owned by its 89,000 full-time employees. The Institute of Directors, the British Bankers Association and the CBI also raised concerns about the proposal.