John Lewis Partnership’s 70,000 staff are this week expected to receive around 14pc of their annual salary as a bonus as the retailer reveals strong full-year profit figures.

The retail group – which owns the Waitrose supermarket and the John Lewis department store chains – is expected to say that pre-tax profit over the year to January 31 was £315m compared with £280m a year ago.

The increase in profits, which came about after a surge over the second half of 2009 following a poor first-half performance, will be enough to guarantee the large pay-out, which is equivalent to almost eight weeks’ pay.

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“The penalty for creating awareness (misleading the public) about the ill effects of Genetically Modified issues may lead to an imprisonment of minimum six months and upto one year with a maximum fine of Rs.2 lakhs,” he said. “The clauses of this bill are draconian and more stringent than even the repealed acts like POTA, TADA.”

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