I think I just heard a positive about Brexit !

[SilentSister]

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.

I didn’t say improved workers rights was bad, I said employers usually claw their losses back and employees are usually first in the firing line. Without stronger employment laws employees will never be the long term winners. Another pyrrhic Brexit victory.

In a world with a rising population, the opposite is true.
But Japan's population is already declining.
Europe's will start to decline in about 11 years
North America, South America and Asia start to decline in about 15 years
the only continent with a birth rate above replacement is Africa
and the birth rate there is plummeting

much of the current population growth is due to ageing
old infirm people do not make the best hotel room cleaners

You can't just transpose the trajectory of technology and it's social effects in Japan on to life in the UK. Technology doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Besides, by the time we start adopting that level of automation here it will be so advance it will unsettle the middle earning jobs and then we will hear large tutting from the middle classes and politics will adapt to suit.

But Japan's population is already declining. ....

A stable or shrinking population would be a disaster for capitalism and cannot be allowed to happen. As we've already seen the tactic is to plug local population shrinkages with people areas where population is still rising. This absolutely cannot be allowed to change (which is why it's so hilarious that Brexiteers think their leaders will deliver them from immigration. Quite the reverse). As long as there are more people than jobs, you can keep the workforce in check and the profits rolling in. The moment you have to start paying more, as there are more jobs than workers ... the whole house of cards collapses.

The only parallel I can think of, to a capitalist fearing population decline are drug dealers who are terrified of legalisation. Luckily drug profits are so enormous, you can easily buy enough media and politicians to prevent that happening.

The moment you have to start paying more, as there are more jobs than workers ... the whole house of cards collapses.
So in about 25-30 years max

Historically, the nearest comparator is after the black death ....

So in about 25-30 years max

If natures kind. Maybe next year if not ....

I listened to this interview and on the surface it appears to be a brexit benefit.
however, many low paid workers are on housing benefit and tax credits, the claw back is either 100% or around 80%, so it doesn't benefit the worker.

Of course there will be some benefit to brexit, it would be stupid to suggest otherwise, its on balance though... i have just been to see a hardwood floor contractor, he is worried about the future as much of his work is for London businesses, who aren't refitting premises as they don't know if or where they'll be working in the coming months, he has already laid off staff.... a friend (CEO) of mine has issued redundancies to 15 staff as he has relocated parts & warehousing to Holland.

however, many low paid workers are on housing benefit and tax credits, the claw back is either 100% or around 80%, so it doesn't benefit the worker.

It's not just about income, it's about stability of hours. And the HMRC just aren't adapting/ not able to adapt to the zero hours pattern of working effectively so that leaves low paid workers borked on two fronts.

If it gets rid of zero hours contracts it can only be a good thing. They are dreadful

Plus, also, it's about how people are increasingly vilified for reliance on benefits and making them jump through hoops to get it AT THE SAME time as operating an economic model of business growth that absolutely depends on benefits.

It's not just about net income - it's about dignity and not being thrown around like a political pin ball.

I thought the explanation for travel lodge’s gain was that travellers are being more thrifty and so are more likely to opt for budget travel than a room with a more expensive competitor. These are not new jobs - they are jobs at the expense of someone else’s employment. I suppose it makes it ok for the op that the ‘someone else’ is an EU national who gives up on the uk and heads home. Let’s put the bunting out (red, white and blue, of course) and celebrate.

Let’s hope the trajectory doesn’t continue in this direction however, as the natural next step along this path will be no hotel visits at all - budget or otherwise.

It's not just jobs - they're secure, fixed hour, contracted jobs.

Honestly, I'm alright for money but I'm not an island, how do people not get this?

I clicked on this link expecting to find a discussion of the marvellous John bercow - now that really is good news about brexit.

They can be as ‘secure’ as you like, but only for as long as Travelodge is secure - which, in a Brexit induced recession, will be not very long. Still I guess you have to take your good news where you find it.

I run a B&B in a small town where Travelodge have targeted opening a new hotel. They will double the number of accommodation rooms available in the vicinity. I probably won't have a business within the next 2 years. There are approx. 20 - 22 hospitality businesses within a 10 mile radius currently. Every single one of them will be impacted. I employ 2 women during school hours on NLW, am very flexible about time off for sick kids, inset days etc. The other businesses employ local people, none as far as I am aware on zero hours. Travelodge/Premier Inns run on the smallest staff possible. They pay crap wages. I am absolutely fed up.

crowd I stayed at a Travelodge in central Glasgow last month visiting the university. I saw no staff apart from the man on reception who handed me my pass. Check out was automated, although I did ring the bell on reception when I was leaving, just because I felt the old fashioned need to register the fact that I was actually leaving and to say thank you to a real human being. With absolutely no frills, there is barely any need for staff. I feel your pain.

@teyem
It's not just jobs - they're secure, fixed hour, contracted jobs.
I'll believe it when I hear of people actually getting them

Ok, I'm happy to suspend my disbelief, I'm as cynical as anyone about this, I'm just pointing out, as a matter of principle, that the quality of a job is important.

Figmentofmyimagination
You are forgetting cleaning staff but yes 'peopleless' hotels don't feel right. The likes of 'Formula 1' hotels where you use your credit card to gain (first) entry when you arrive. Vending machine in the lobby area and that is it.

You then all forget that with the rise of AirBnB the whole hotel market especially I would say at the budget end is changing quite rapidly.

the only, real positive aspect of Brexit so far is that it's giving comedians an ENDLESS source of inspiration. British politics used to be the most boring and predictable things in the entire EU spectrum, but ow it's making up biiiiig time...

I work in the public sector and we have not been able to recruit for mid-skills jobs for years - no candidates. Wonder if a pay rise and improved conditions are on their way.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47622415

Lots of interesting responses. Personally I was just looking for some good news to counteract all the bad news of late.

The link above is more good news..... and is interesting with regards to pp's statistics on job losses. Maybe, as the report says, time will tell. I was also interested in the record NHS staffing levels, and the fact that more women and retirees are returning to work, but that may be a negative rather than a positive in that they feel they have to. I don't know, but I am always of the opinion that having work, is better than not having work, and if you do want to work and are able, work is available. Am I being too optimistic??

Hotels with hardly any staff have also been used for the exploitation of young girls by older men. If I owned a hotel and found out that this had been happening under my roof, no way would I go for fewer staff and automated check-in. We stayed in 3 hotels recently, 2 budget, and I only felt safe in one, a chain that costs 2-3x as much but has real people there all day and night, not just one person who is also doing other jobs in the back.
www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/15122331.gang-brought-underage-girls-to-travelodge-hotels-for-sex-trafficking-court-hears/

ETA by "other jobs in the back" I mean paperwork! Not a euphemisn