The chief executive of Dixons Carphone (LON:DC) has called on the government to prioritise the future status of EU workers as Britain prepares to leave the bloc.
Seb James has also said that Theresa May must insist for a transition period to allow businesses adapt to the major changes that will occur in March 2019.
In an interview with Reuters, the head of the UK’s largest electricals retailer, James said: “It’s not fair on people to not give them some kind of clarity as quickly as possible,”
“We need to get that sorted, and we need to get it sorted now,”
With a total UK workforce of 26,000, 4,000 of whom are from other EU countries, James is calling for a more clear future for these employees. James also criticised the government for only calling for a study of EU migration last week, when the UK is due to leave the EU in so soon.
“I hope and pray that we will begin to see the sort of pragmatism and sensible negotiating that we in Britain have historically been famous for,” he told Reuters.
“At the moment there seems to be quite a lot of ideological discussion. I will be glad to see the back of it.”
“There’s nothing I can do. We just have to make ourselves as resilient as we can, put our arms around our people and defend them like lions to the extent that we can.”
Dixons Carphone, who owns CurrysPC World and Carphone Warehouse, has seen a strong year for trading.
The group saw record annual profit in June but this was followed by a drop in shares by 22 percent.
“If we continue to grow profitability and do that in a very sustainable, long term and recurring way I think we’ll get our share price back and more.” said James, saying he was “calm” about the share price.