Why shouldn't employees pay to work ?

[SerendipityJane]

After all, we're all in this together ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-56213042

A restaurant chain has asked furloughed staff to loan the firm part of their wages or face the sack, a union claims.

Tomahawk Steakhouse wants employees to sign an agreement to lend 10% of their wages each month to cover their pension and national insurance contributions, the GMB Union says.

Staff who refuse have been told their "suitability for the role will have to be reviewed", it is claimed.

(contd)

YABU: Not in favour.
YANBU: Spiffing idea.

But what about the bosses ? Someone has to think of them

I'd say someone already is; very possibly the place is on the skids, so it'll be a case of grab what you can, raid the pension fund and head off over the horizon

Trouble is, I doubt they'll be alone in doing this

How come the BBC report this but not the British Gas fire and rehire! Which I personally feel opened the floodgates to so many companies treating their employees like scum.

Is it moral? No of course not. It seems many many companies have tried to screw their employees over due to Covid. Some like British Gas just using it as an excuse, whereas this case I guess there is genuine need, but at the same time, there are options for them to explore without screwing over their staff.

It would be interesting to hear their response which they seem to have refused to do.

@SerendipityJane your point about £100 a week vs £10,000 a week doesn't really stand because at the end of the day one person still only has £50 to live on and the other has £5,000. Last time I checked base rent and food still cost the same.

Poor people always say that. They have no idea of the stress losing £5,000 a week causes.

Clearly this business is trying to redress the balance between the poor - who hog all the headlines - and the less poor who always get a bum rap. Fair play to them. Someone needs to remember the rich. Thank goodness we finally have a government that does.

They do not seem like good employers.

@andyoldlabour

is it just me who thinks this is a trolling thread? I have a great idea, let's bring back workhouses and sending 8 year olds down the mines.

surely a trolling thread would begin with made up shit ?

Not a real live news story ?

Ah, I think you over egged it in your last post OP.

It depends. What are the loans secured against? Do they have insurance to make sure the loans aren't lost in case they go bankrupt?

Interest free, they say?

Why can't they get loans from the bank?
Because not interest free?

Weakest link. [grr]

The threat alone should be illegal.

It's fraud.

For those who are confused, I believe this is a thread carefully crafted to encourage YABU votes (unless my irony detector is broken).

I don't think there are any Tomahawk steakhouses round my way, but if one opens I'll make a point of not using it. They're missing the whole point of there being employers' and employees' contributions - and like you, OP, I suspect cute tricks like this will only increase.

We all had to accept a 20% pay cut to keep working full time when this started last March, no plan to ever give it back to us.

I think this kind of thing is happening more frequently then you may be aware OP

A company this shitty is already likely putting their staff on shitty low houred contracts too I bet. Eg 16 hour contract but expected to work 30 hours. So sick pay and holiday pay will be reduced.

If you listen carefully, you can hear ACAS rub their hands with glee at this story. Any workers would be wise to give them a quick call.

[quote SerendipityJane]^@SerendipityJane your point about £100 a week vs £10,000 a week doesn't really stand because at the end of the day one person still only has £50 to live on and the other has £5,000. Last time I checked base rent and food still cost the same.^

Poor people always say that. They have no idea of the stress losing £5,000 a week causes.

Clearly this business is trying to redress the balance between the poor - who hog all the headlines - and the less poor who always get a bum rap. Fair play to them. Someone needs to remember the rich. Thank goodness we finally have a government that does.[/quote]
Ok, now I think it's a trolling thread. I even looked through some of their past posts before to check.

I gather you've never been poor then and had the risk of losing what little you have not the £500,000 home with £350,000 equity that would enable you to buy something else cheaper or rent a better house. You have no idea what the stress of struggling to pay rent because you were off sick for a week or making what little food you have left (some eggs, a few tin and some freezer crap) last until pay day.

I can't get that sad about a businessman with insurance and a good pension pot potentially losing his chain business. Something else will fill the gap and those people who lost their jobs (I'm sad about that) will find something else. The businessman will likely go on to create more businesses and if not he had a good salary and a good pension and likely a lots of savings to keep him going.

Vote in a Tory government, get Tory hiring practices. Thanks to the Brexit folk this will get worse because the EU can no longer stop them reducing workers rights (or environmental protections but that's another thread).

Contract terms will become a race to the bottom for those working at the bottom of the ladder. Asda were the first to try and use fire/rehire, British Airways and British Gas joined in as major employers but I'm sure there are many smaller businesses using this legislation and more will follow.

Thank you to all the Conservative and Brexit voters - you must be so proud!

This problem is about viewing people as "Human resources" coal electricity and paper are resources when they are used up you order more, the tendency to call people Human resources encourags the same attitude to people it deprives them of dignity it actually de-humanises people as they are considered a resource that can beused until no longer useful them spat out and more ordered they can change the conditions at short notice cancel shifts or contracts without any feeling or recognition that they are another person with the same rights as everyone else, Human resources the biggest expense in a business rather than essential people without whom I would not have a business

[quote SerendipityJane]^@SerendipityJane your point about £100 a week vs £10,000 a week doesn't really stand because at the end of the day one person still only has £50 to live on and the other has £5,000. Last time I checked base rent and food still cost the same.^

Poor people always say that. They have no idea of the stress losing £5,000 a week causes.

Clearly this business is trying to redress the balance between the poor - who hog all the headlines - and the less poor who always get a bum rap. Fair play to them. Someone needs to remember the rich. Thank goodness we finally have a government that does.[/quote]
Oh dear, OP, you've peaked too soon with that gem. Yeah, fucking poor people not being happy to only have £50 a week to live on compared to £5000 🙄

Christ almighty. It’s sarcasm, not a ‘trolling thread’.

Will no one think of the goats?

@AwkwardSquad

Christ almighty. It’s sarcasm, not a ‘trolling thread’.

That's the problem with text, it's almost impossible to tell without emoticons isn't it.

Will no one think of the goats?

Going by what the only steak I ever had there tasted like, they may have thought of them already ...

Yes. Make the peasants pay up. Maybe they could also donate a kidney or two...just to keep things ticking over....

@Newnamefor2021

How come the BBC report this but not the British Gas fire and rehire! Which I personally feel opened the floodgates to so many companies treating their employees like scum.

Is it moral? No of course not. It seems many many companies have tried to screw their employees over due to Covid. Some like British Gas just using it as an excuse, whereas this case I guess there is genuine need, but at the same time, there are options for them to explore without screwing over their staff.

It would be interesting to hear their response which they seem to have refused to do.

I didn't know about that but do low news.

@DynamoKev

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ... they won't believe you ALL: They won't!

Yes, that's how it's becoming. I really do wonder what would happen if employees all made a stand against this sort of bollocks - as in, the whole company refused to accept those terms. Unfortunately there are plenty of unprincipled, greedy employers quite happy to make people work 15 hour days and jump through hoops just to be able to keep a roof over their heads.

My company forced people above a pay bracket to have their sallery cut by 10% or people would have been made redundant. :/

so if i loan my wages and the business folds , i will have lost my job anyway AND be poorer.

Anyone up for a Crowdfunding to Feed The Rich,

Poor people always say that. They have no idea of the stress losing £5,000 a week causes.

Won't somebody think of the RICH?