{"id":21099,"date":"2021-01-27T09:53:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T09:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=476293"},"modified":"2021-01-27T09:53:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T09:53:03","slug":"as-coronavirus-continues-to-impact-the-retail-industry-workers-will-lose-out-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/27\/as-coronavirus-continues-to-impact-the-retail-industry-workers-will-lose-out-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":"As coronavirus continues to impact the retail industry, workers will lose out the most"},"content":{"rendered":"

The closure of high street stores leaves 20,000<\/a> jobs at risk amid rising unemployment<\/a> under the pandemic.<\/p>\n

On 25 January, Debenhams announced it would close<\/a> all stores after online company Boohoo bought the chain. This will most likely result in the loss of 12,000 jobs as Debenhams stores disappear from the high street.<\/p>\n

In July, the\u00a0Sunday Times\u00a0<\/em>reported<\/a> that Boohoo were paying workers “as little as \u00a33.50 an hour” as they worked in poor conditions at a Leicester factory.<\/p>\n

The job losses are another blow in a period of increasing redundancies<\/a> across the retail sector and rising unemployment.<\/p>\n

Dave Gill, national officer of the Union for Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), called for government action to help retail workers. He said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Nearly 180,000 retail job losses and around 20,000 store closures last year were absolutely devastating and lay bare the scale of the challenge the industry faces. Each one of those job losses is a personal tragedy for the individual worker and store closures are scarring our high streets and communities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Debenhams has gone then. 12,000 jobs lost. That's 12,000 more people applying for jobs that aren't there. My heart goes out to all them.<\/p>\n

— \"?\"Louise\"?\"Ellis\"\u262e\"Davies\"?\" (@louanndavies) January 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n