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Brexit

I think I just heard a positive about Brexit !

55 replies

SilentSister · 18/03/2019 10:06

CEO of Travelodge on BBC News this morning, because they have increased profits etc etc talking about the issues with European workers returning home and trouble recruiting staff.

In order to retain existing staff, and encourage UK applicants, they are now offering full contracts, rather than zero hours, and increasing salaries. They are also going to target older/returning to work mums etc, by offering flexible part-time contracts.

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 10:27

So prices will rise somewhere ?

Timeforabiscuit · 18/03/2019 10:32

Shh DGRossetti! Don't spoil it!

I think there are a few things troublesome about Travellodges strategy, they cater for the budget end so big price sensitivity there, business post brexit is a bit of a black hole and this is where they are expanding.

Hospitality is a low paid industry generally (I didn't hear about increased pay), focusing recruitment on a fairly small demographic and throwing in some management training at those with fewer options from leaving formal education early is a canny move IMO.

GoFiguire · 18/03/2019 10:33

There’s always one to piss on the parade.

DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 10:38

There’s always one to piss on the parade.

If not believing in unicorns and understanding how businesses work is pissing on someone elses parade, I can start to see how we got where we are ....

Also, it's very easy to get news outlets to print nice stories from your press releases. Call me cynical, but I'll wait for the contracts to be printed before I wave my flag.

Besides while 3,000 potential new jobs in Travelodge sound good, they don't really balance the jobs going in Sunderland, Swindon or Oxford.

lonelyplanetmum · 18/03/2019 10:46

This is a pretty comprehensive list of updated losses.More than 3k on there.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTIPx0lI6pb-3Tn-3D6uNJNyKcCd-A8uPMxViagyJAR9T87ZmnSdAEPCzp5ljlNYoUNdxJiJqQdBm7b/pubhtml

1tisILeClerc · 18/03/2019 10:51

While it may turn out to good news for some, I am not sure that MAYBE 3000 part time jobs over a 4 year period is going to offset what is being lost.
USA investment companies maybe owning Travelodge.

teyem · 18/03/2019 11:01

It's good news if this nods to a trend were there is now pressure on employers to up their game in terms of employment contracts to recruit staff.

I voted remain and even I can admit that much.

GhostofFrankGrimes · 18/03/2019 11:08

It’ll be a short term win if prices get pushed up due to other costs. When does a budget hotel cease to be good value?

Brexit impacts needs to be viewed in the longer term not by businesses taking short term measures.

teyem · 18/03/2019 11:11

I'd say that current prices must be artificially low if it rides on the back of precarious employment. If that necessitates an increase in price - then that seems reasonable.

VelvetPineapple · 18/03/2019 11:12

So prices will rise somewhere

Good. When stuff is cheap it’s always at someone’s expense. Why should people be forced into zero hour contracts with no reliable income or employment benefits just because other people want cheap stuff? If you can’t afford quite as many hotel stays then it’s tough.

GhostofFrankGrimes · 18/03/2019 11:20

One of the major pitfalls of capitalism. You can have cheap goods but it will be at the expense of someone, usually workers.

When prices go up it damages demand unless you are high end. When demand is damaged somebody has to pay, usually the worker through cutbacks.

teyem · 18/03/2019 11:34

This idea that you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don't seems like a simplistic and lazy way of saying that it's inevitable that low paid worked live with shitty employment situation and negates the impetus to attempt to improve their security.

Now Travelodge clearly feel that they are prepared to increase costs without any harmful effects on demand or they are happy to take a hit on the money margin to increase market share.

It'll be interesting at any rate.

GhostofFrankGrimes · 18/03/2019 11:42

We wouldn’t be in this situation at all if union rights hadn’t been undermined over the last 40 years.

teyem · 18/03/2019 11:43

Agreed.

Clavinova · 18/03/2019 15:06

lonelyplanetmum
This is a pretty comprehensive list of updated losses

I've seen this list posted a few times before - I've found the original. It's drawn up by someone called Mr Hickmott - he has an anti-Brexit twitter account as well.

His job loss index links from here;
smallbusinessprices.co.uk/brexit-index/

The Brexit Job Loss Index is an attempt to keep track of the number of jobs lost in the UK due to Brexit.

Here is his methodology

Job losses are attributed to Brexit if they meet one or more of the following conditions:

1.The employer’s business has been significantly affected by sterling’s devaluation, either immediately through rises in the cost of imported inputs or later by inflation passed on by those who were so affected.

2.Government austerity cuts are attributed to Brexit since Britain voted to remain the EU, austerity would have been lifted instead of deepened.

3.Barring other obvious explanations businesses that were doing okay but experienced a significant slowdown after the Brexit vote are deemed to have been impacted by Brexit.

4.Businesses and other enterprises (e.g. EU regulatory authorities) that will be impacted by the imposition of trading or regulatory barriers (including the potential imposition of tariffs).

5.All jobs moved abroad are considered Brexit-related even if offshored outside the EU, since Brexit makes Britain a “third country” to the EU, just like India or China.

Other factors are occasionally cited but these are the main categories.

Job losses due to changes in the way business is conducted, such as those due to banking automation or to internet shopping, are usually excluded unless there is some compelling reason to regard Brexit is the real reason for cutting staff. Hmm

Mr Hickmott claims to have updated his list on the 11th March 2019 - but I can see straightaway that he hasn't revised the job losses for House of Fraser and Deutsche Bank (obviously Deutsche Bank is in the news today regarding a possible merger):

House of Fraser - should be 6,000 job losses, not 12,500 after the rescue bid - all job losses are Brexit related of course - nothing to do with the boom in online shopping affecting the high street or business rates.

Deutsche Bank - Mr Hickmott says 4,000 job losses due to Brexit, but the CEO of Deutsche Bank said this;

Deutsche will move hundreds, rather than thousands, of jobs from the U.K. to the Continent because of Brexit, CEO John Cryan said.

“The number of 4,000 mentioned again and again in media reports is way too high,” Cryan told Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper in an interview published Saturday.

www.politico.eu/article/deutsche-bank-says-it-will-shift-only-hundreds-of-jobs-due-to-brexit

He's got several entries for Jaguar Land Rover - where did he get 24,800 job losses from? He's put unknown??

I know a bit about Bet365 as well.
Mr Hickmott says 1,000 job losses in Gibraltar - Bet365 denies it;

www.casinonewsdaily.com/2018/05/21/bet365-denies-malta-relocation-reports-confirms-expansion-in-the-gambling-hub/

He doesn't seem to be a very reliable source of information.

DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 15:12

He doesn't seem to be a very reliable source of information.

Unlike those paragons of precision Johnson, Gove, May, Farage, Fox and Davies ?

ReleaseTheBats · 18/03/2019 15:12

Can I ask, do the people on this thread who don't see higher wages and ending of zero hours contracts as good news because it will put prices up want wages to be kept low and people to be on zero hours contracts to keep hotel bills down?

GhostofFrankGrimes · 18/03/2019 15:15

I want strong trade unions and good employment practices so that ZHCs and low wages aren’t a “thing” in the first place. When employers have great leverage over workers it is never a good thing.

DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 15:15

Can I ask, do the people on this thread who don't see higher wages and ending of zero hours contracts as good news because it will put prices up want wages to be kept low and people to be on zero hours contracts to keep hotel bills down?

It's not an either/or, though is it ? You can have higher wages and keep prices low if you reduce the profit you are willing to reap.

Apple, for example, could double the wages of every employee (not just the minimum wage workers in China) and halve the cost of all iPhones and still make a profit. Not such a big one perhaps. But a profit all the same.

SalrycLuxx · 18/03/2019 15:16

*So prices will rise somewhere

Good. When stuff is cheap it’s always at someone’s expense.*

And at the expense of the environment. We need to move away from our cheap throwaway culture (appreciate it doesn’t map onto hotel room bookings but this is a more general point).

ReleaseTheBats · 18/03/2019 15:19

I want strong trade unions and good employment practices so that ZHCs and low wages aren’t a “thing” in the first place. When employers have great leverage over workers it is never a good thing

Odd that you say that when you have just said that an employer having to improve conditions is a bad thing because it will increase prices.

Oh well.

ReleaseTheBats · 18/03/2019 15:22

DGRossetti, why did you post "so prices will rise somewhere" then?

DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 15:28

DGRossetti, why did you post "so prices will rise somewhere" then?

Because I can't think of any examples where wages have risen, prices stayed the same, and profits reduced. Probably a failure of imagination on my part, not a real reflection on the culture of corporate greed we have encouraged over the past two generations. Anyway, I'll be dead soon Grin

TalkinPaece · 18/03/2019 15:33

Shortages of staff will lead to greater automation
rather than better pay and conditions
look at Japan for the country furthest down that road

DGRossetti · 18/03/2019 15:38

Shortages of staff will lead to greater automation

In a world with a rising population, the opposite is true. A surplus of staff will lead to less jobs. There must come a point where the population is earning so little they can't afford the shit the manufacturers are pushing ....

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