Wetherspoons has denied his employees full-wages and advise to find a job somewhere else.
On the 23rd of March 2020, founder and Chairman of the famous British pub chain Wetherspoons, Tim Martin has sent a video to all his 43,000 employees saying that they will get paid only for the hours worked until the 22nd of March, and they will not receive any further money from the company until the company will receive a government grant.
Tim Martin, who had previously ignored the government advice to keep his 900 pubs across the United Kingdom and Ireland closed as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19, has now said, “Wetherspoons employees can go and find a job at Tesco if they really need to work during the pandemic”.
A petition has started right after Martin speech to demand the company to pay his staff while waiting for the help of the government to kick in. “I have been working for the company for two years and I find myself as a furloughed worker at the moment, I feel that Wetherspoon is losing employees at the moment, but it will only be in the short-term,” said Diana Isidori, 22, a student at Westminster University and shift leader for a Wetherspoons pub in central London.
The petition to urge the company to pay all his employees had come to an outcome just two days after it was set up with over 70% of all Wetherspoons’ employees signing the petition. 30,567 signatures have been collected and the government grant which was expected to arrive by the end of April was taken in place right away the British lockdown was put in place on the 23rd of March 2020.
“I can’t complain because I still have a job, and I am being paid the 80% of my salary to stay home, but other companies such as Costa have granted their employees with extra money,” said Dimitar Dimitrov, 24, shift leader in a Wetherspoons pub in London.
The government, through the furlough scheme, has granted 80% of the employee average full wage and is paid weekly. Nevertheless, Martin has refused to add the 20% left and he also avoided to pay the bonus already earned during the winter. For this reason, another petition was set up to encourage Martin to pay the rest of the salary.
This last petition has collected 14,357 signatures, which are only 33% of Wetherspoons’ employees, which was not enough to make the company pay what they asked for.
Despite the fact lockdown hasn’t been lifted by the government yet, according to the BBC News, on the 30th of April 2020 Martin also said, “pubs might be allowed to open in late June”.
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