Staff at UK luxury store Harrods to stage Christmas strike

LONDON - Hundreds of staff at London’s luxury department store Harrods will walk out just days before Christmas, a union said Dec 13, in a row over pay and working conditions.

The strike at the store - whose late former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed is

now accused of being a serial sex offender

- will target some of its busiest retail days on Dec 21 and 22, as well as Dec 26 or Boxing Day - traditionally the launch day for busy end-of-year sales in the UK.

Workers including shop, restaurant, kitchen and cleaning staff had “no option” but to vote to strike “as Harrods’ management refuses to recognise or engage with their union for negotiations,” the United Voices of the World UVW union said in a statement.

“Pay and conditions have deteriorated even as the company rewards its owners and top executives with exorbitant payouts,” it added.

Among the workers’ demands are an annual bonus, guaranteed above inflation pay rises and better staffing levels.

Some 95 per cent of UVW union members who were balloted voted to strike.

“This is a momentous result and demonstrates just how ready we are to fight for what we deserve and push for more than the bare minimum,” said Ms Alice Howick, a Harrods waiter and UVW member.

Fayed, who

died in 2023

aged 94, owned the store for 25 years until 2010.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which is investigating the sexual assault claims against him, said in November it had so far identified 90 victims.

It comes in the wake of a BBC documentary, aired in September, that detailed several claims of rape and sexual assault against him.

The Egyptian billionaire was one of Britain’s most well-known businessmen. His son Dodi was killed in a 1997 Paris car crash alongside Princess Diana, the former wife of King Charles III. AFP