Clean Up Fashion - Arcadia Group

Moose said:

I work for D.P. I'm 16. On an 8 hour contract.
Last summer i work 37hrs in 6 days straight. When i wanted a few days without extra hours so i could go away with my mum on holiday the manager said i couldnt just do my regular sunday shift. Read the handbook and you're expected to be "flexible" basically translating into "prisoner". We even booked the few days around my regular shift so i wouldnt have to miss it.
We're not supposed to take holiday in the school holidays, i'm full time at college so when exactly am i supposed to have free time?
I like my work, i work hard and usually i enjoy it. I'm disappointed about the un-ethical treatment of the people who make the clothes i sell every week. With a wave of his ample checkbook Mr Green could easily change this. Sitting there employing people to make policies and statements isnt dealing with the issue.

May 02, 2008

Lucy said:

I worked for Outfit for a year and a half through sixth form. I was on a 9 hour contract as I was a student and was doing my ALevels. Through my exams in my second ALevel year I was put in EVERY week to work at least 20-25 hours. I worked 3/4 weeknights and all day on a Sat AND a sunday, even though the terms of employment were just to do 3 weeknights. They must have 'accidentally' failed to put this in my contract, as I was told I MUST work weekends also, and as the contract says you must be 'flexible' this means I had to work 3 x my contract. Countless times I approached the manager and was told to get my shifts covered. As the store was so under-staffed other people couldnt take on anymore hours, and many were in the same situation as me. In the end with my exams and working so much, I left due to stress. In the time I worked for Outfit, there were more changes in staff than I can remember, some people employed even left after 1 day... It seriously was that bad. The managers were awful, spoke to me like dirt and didnt care that a 16 year old girl obviously couldnt cope. I have to say though, ive worked for another Arcadia company since and it was alot better.

April 27, 2008

Jake said:

Seriously people, get real! What did you expect to get paid from somewhere in the retail trade? It's well known that it's very low paid. Maybe some of you people deserved the minimum wage. Arcadia have a workbook scheme within every brand and the minimum wage is only there if if are crap at your job and can't even manage to complete the most basic standard level. When you get upped to standard level or higher the computer asks what your new wage is and it has to be within a certain limit.

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oing half your contract as overtime??? Thats rubbish. Your manager is having you on. Overtime is not a requirement but is considered to seen as the member of staff being dedicated to the store. It seems that maybe some of you have had dodgy managers trying to wrangle you for what they can to save on costs.

With regards to the staff discount card being declined, askfor a under 18s card as you failed the credit check. Also the discount is a priviledge not something you are entitled to. That way if you do something wrong they can take it away from you. Read the terms and conditions idiot.

Also the staff card has the same interest rate as the store cards numb nutz. Also 29.9% APR may sound really bad but not when you take into account that the maximum limit is £250 for staff. If you had £100 as a balance on the card, then the interest charged for one month would be £2.21. Now that isn't that bad. Because the limit is so low, it works out to be very little. Even a customer with a maximum limit of £500 would only pay £11.05 maximum in interest for one month.

The only reason that you have to pay back the discount would be because you have left, not handed your card back to the manager, used it to buy stuff thinking that you could get away with it but they caught up with you. Never have i heard of someone having to pay back ALL the discount they have received while using the card.

Bonus is a maximum of 5% of your annual salary. But that is dependant on various different things. ie Store making target and stockloss. These are things that the staff within a store can help contribute towards.

The only people you can blame is yourselves and everyone else. Everybody wants everything cheaper and the only way major companies can do that is to get it made really cheap elsewhere. Ok so this may be wrong, but companies are always going to do what they have to to satisfy the customer. Get everyone else to change and then that'll make the manufacturers change. But as long as places like Primark exist offering clothing at low prices, other companies will have no choice but to maximise their profits.

Last thing, the company was like this before Phillip Green came along. Yes he has lots of money, but he made it by working hard. Not from being a dumb lazy kid working the bare minimum and complaining all the time. Or maybe even a yound parent cos they couldn't keep their willy in their pants.

PS by the way, i used to work for Arcadia part-time. worked up from 4hrs a week to a store management level and I'm 21.

April 02, 2008

Liz said:

Dear people who are whinging about your minimim wage Topshop jobs:

I think you have missed the point of this article somewhere. It is not about YOUR working conditions and wages. YOUR working conditions and wages are pretty much standard in the UK, which has a generally good quality of life. You are not poor.

The actual issue here is that people in India and Bangladesh are being charged up to £750 just to get a job, and then shipped across the world to Mauritius to work in a factory where they are paid around 20p an hour, 12 hours a day, to make shirts which sell for around £15 a piece.

But hey, they've got nothing on you guys! You have to work eight hours a week! On £5.50 an hour! Boy do you have it tough! I bet those Indian workers are feeling real good about their jobs right now. At least they don't have to worry about rotas and paid time off and employee benefits. Cos those can get real complicated. Right??

April 02, 2008

robert said:

i worked at topshop for 2 years after i left shcool at 16 i was on minium wage and working all hours god sent while having a 13mnth old daughter at home who wasn't gettting the attention she needed from her father i will not ever again be working for this company or spending my money is this shop again .!!!

March 27, 2008

Sarah said:

I've worked for topshop for well over a year now, and have been waiting for their stupid staff discount credit card for absolutely ages, first time applying it was declined as I have no credit rating (just being 1 smilies/cool.gif

and was not told about it so was left having to pay full price even though I am entitled to discount. Makes me mad! ALSO been on minimum wage for ages, work terrible hours (only on 8 hour contract and have been told i must to half that in overtime a week (apparently thats in my contract, if so, whats the point in being on 8 hours, why not be on 12? I am only a student so i don't want to do too many hours) Phillip Green gives us like a 5% bonus every year which the last two times have been more like 2%. And he earns more than i will in my lifetime in about a month and still only pays me £5.50 an hour! Don't work for this company if you are ever offered!

January 28, 2008

Jane May said:

I'm appalled to read about Topshop too. I somehow thought it was one of the better high street brands for fair-trade, but I was totally wrong. From now on, I'll definitely be spending my money somewhere else.

January 03, 2008

Sarah said:

I work for Topman and it is one of the worse companies I've worked for in the seven years I've worked in retail. I'm 23 and on mimimum wage, even the top level's are on MW. It's appauling when you consider the amount of work we do. I have a bad back and didn't want to work sunday's. I was assured when I started these would be fine. I regulary have to lift heavy totes of clothing and I have to work every sunday because my manager doesn't want to. I supervise and get NO extra pay. And the final straw? To get discount staff have to sign up to a staff card which charges MORE interest than the store cards and pay back ALL discount when they leave. It's a joke and I have no respect for the man that owns the company I work for. He didn't get rich by being nice, he got rich by screwing people like me, his staff over.

May 26, 2007

Samm said:

I am appalled by reading about Topshop, I'm a huge fan of the topshop label and spend easily well over two thousand pounds there a year, but after reading this website I think I'll be reviewing where I spend my money from now on and will look for a retailer who is more ethical

April 26, 2007