Topshop makes 18 staff redundant … Labor fails to stop penalty rate cuts … Most influential brands in Australia revealed

By Emma Koehn and Dominic Powell. 

There have been 18 redundancies at the head office of Topshop Australia, with administrators Ferrier Hodgson continuing to work with the UK owner of the Topshop brand to “resize” the business after it collapsed into voluntary administration in May.

When administrators were called in, the Australian franchise of the Topshop and Topman brands had six standalone stores and 17 concessions inside the outlets of department store Myer, which owns a 20% stake in the franchise.

“The administrators are continuing discussions with Arcadia Group, with a focus on right sizing the Topshop Topman Australian business. Some restructuring has already commenced, which has unfortunately resulted in 18 head office redundancies,” a spokesperson for the administrators confirmed to SmartCompany this morning.

Labor fails to stop penalty rate cuts

Labor’s bid to overturn the Fair Work Commission’s decision on lower Sunday penalty rates has been thwarted, with its bill to stop the changes defeated in the Senate on Tuesday night.

Federal government backbencher George Christensen crossed the floor to vote with Labor on the issue, but it was defeated 73-72 in a result Christensen said on Twitter was “sad”, reports the ABC. 

In February the Fair Work Commission delivered its decision on Sunday penalty rates, deciding to lower the hourly percentage loading amounts for workers in the hospitality, fast food, retail and pharmacy sectors.

At the start of June, the Commission announced transition arrangements to the new rates would commence on July 1 and take between three and four years to complete.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten vowed to try to overturn the decision through legislation to alter the Fair Work Act, saying the decision meant workers had been “kicked in the guts”.

Tech companies dominate influential brands list

The most influential brands in Australia have been revealed, with technology companies accounting for eight of the top 10 brands.

The brands were ranked on their engagement, level of trustworthiness, “leading edge”, citizenship, and presence by 2000 Australian adults in a study carried out by Ipsos.

Unsurprisingly, Google topped the list, as it has for the past four years in a row. The company cleaned house across all factors, with an indexed score of 402 — 100 points higher than the next placed company.

Here are the top 10 most influential brands in Australia, according to the Ipsos survey:

1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Microsoft
4. Paypal
5. Coles
6. eBay
7. Apple
8. YouTube
9. Telstra
10. Bunnings

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