So Disappointed in Gordon Ramsey

[Nanalisa60]

Just heard the he has laid off all his 500 staff in the uk !! He has paid them until the end of April!! Why could he just not put them In forlough for 80 % of there wages which will be paid by the government. We don’t know how long this will last , people need to have hope that they have a job to go back to when this madness ends.

I really thought the Gordon was better then this !! Just so so disappointed in him!!

I saw him on Ant and Dec last night and thought she was absolutely fine inasmuch as he didn't lose his temper at all. He won't be the only employer doing this and he may not also qualify for the 80% pay for employees as I thought that was for small businesses? If he did, he'd have to have absolutely no contact with the employee and a guaranteed job would have to be there at the end whereas I'm pretty sure a lot of restaurants will remain closed.

There's a difference between the local coffee shop that has to lay off staff because of Covid & someone doing the same but with a fortune of 113m.

Ah that is a real shame - we went to Bread Street Kitchen last month with our DC and some friends and the staff were all so lovely and accommodating. I'm sure he could have propped up the business with some of his personal fortune if the restaurants are in trouble, or at least kept them employed on paper so they could claim the 80%.

You know this thread will be removed after request from his PR team in less than 24 hours.

Wow, that's really icky

I’ve worked with him. He was absolutely lovely, funny and easy going.

You do know that he’s the ‘face’ of the business but he doesn’t make all the decisions on his own, right? He has business managers, accountants, lawyers etc that actually run the business?

At the end of the day he is a business not a charity. He has paid his staff until the end of April which is far more than some employers have done or will do. We dont know what is going on behind the scenes. He has a business to protect and you cant blame him for putting measures in place to do that.

I think I will wait to see what a ex-employee posts about this or what ends up on the news. For instance if it is anything like the Brittanias awful letter to staff making them homeless in 24 hours then I would definitely judge him as a multimillionaire. Same goes for Rick Stein.

Knowing people who work for him and JO I can only repeat, they were laid off with full pay until the end of April. Samw as working from home, not 80% etc.

That enables them to make UC claims etc. They have been told they will go back to work when the restaurants re open and have contacts with management teams. They have not been abandoned!

I want to see the deletion message too!

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Things are never that simple.

I think he could have done the furlough scheme for his staff and made any high impact business decisions later on, when things are more relaxed.
said she who is only posting to see this thread pulled

I’ve heard good things about him. A friend is a chef. He’s only ever said GR has an image for the brand but it’s not the real him.

yabu to think more of him.
Yanbu to be upset for his staff.

I used to love Hell's Kitchen

He sent this..

You do know that he’s the ‘face’ of the business but he doesn’t make all the decisions on his own, right? He has business managers, accountants, lawyers etc that actually run the business?

This.

Then this

I love GR's TV programmes, especially rhe wonderfully awful Hell's Kitchen (US).

I also love this summary of him by the late, great restaurant/TV critic, A.A. Gill:

“a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being.”

Interesting how we are all told we must continue to pay our childminders/school fees/nursery’s/cleaners etc but it’s perfectly acceptable for businesses with employees to abandon them with no such effort

Demelzaaa what a brilliant quote

You're absolutely right Pegasus

I think the company have to pay the 80% then claim it back from the government. It doesn't kick in straight away. Maybe he just can't afford it.

Furlough isn't just free money though is it, we will all be paying it for years. It's absolutely right that small businesses are supported to stay open, but personally I think he would receive more flack for taking government money to pay his staff for a few months (if he was even eligible that is). It is a business at the end of the day.

What supdragon said