he ain’t heavy
It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Sports Direct are NOT the worst employer in the UK. No, even though their long-suffering workforce will now receive back pay of a million quid (for knowingly being paid less than the minimum wage), that dubious accolade goes to the ever-benevolent, Wimbledon sited, San Lorenzo restaurant, which has had to cough-up over £3000 to each of their 30 employees. I hope the owner chokes on one of his dough balls.
However, it was delightful to discover the true extent of Mike Ashley’s familial love & generosity. It emerges that the leisurewear retailer has been making substantial undisclosed payments to an obscure Cleethorpes-based organisation, Barlin Delivery, owned by the swaggering billionaire’s elder brother, John. Ahhhh, sweet. In blatant contravention to UK law, where listed companies are required to disclose deals with parties who are connected with their directors, Mike chose not to bring this to the regulator’s attention, and claimed the ‘de-risk’ service supplied had nothing to do with family ties. Mind, Mike has previous in this department when he placed his daughter’s 26 year old, nightclub promoting, boyfriend in charge of the business’s multi-million property portfolio. Go figure.
Further good news is that it’s not all take & take on the corporate greed front. High-performing city-star, Woodford Investment Management, have eschewed the norm by abolishing performance related & discretionary bonuses, and placing all employees on fixed salaries. In a move something akin to ‘Turkeys voting for Christmas’ it is unlikely any/many firms will follow this admirable path, where founder Neil Woodford conceded previous payments ‘distorted behaviour, encouraged misconduct, recklessness and short-termism’, but his honesty and public stance deserves to be applauded. If it goes any way whatsoever to pricking that particular perverse bubble (and lest we forget the financial crisis of 2008) then so much the better.
