John Lewis plans to reduce the amount of time staff have to wait before being able to join its final salary pension scheme from five years to three.

The non-contributory scheme is fully funded by John Lewis, meaning staff will have a pension based on 1/60th of their final salary for every year.

The retailer introduced the five-year waiting period in 2003 at a time when many organisations were faced with increasing pension deficits. The partnership council will consider the proposal at its next meeting on 13 March.