So this boycotting will effect the multi-millionaire owners of the companies and not the lowly workers who need the jobs, right?

Yes. In the long run. Lots of companies are being shamed at the moment, some are backing down or doing a U-turn. If you support ethical businesses and try to avoid non-ethical ones then employment rights will improve for all.

employment rights will improve for all.

Well, for those who’ve still got jobs anyway.

All the bell-end, self-employed builder types

All of the self-employed builder types I work with are taking this very seriously (OK I do my best to ensure I don’t work with idiots). The speed of work has been halved so they can fulfil the distancing requirements but they are keeping going to avoid leaving clients in a situation with inconvenient holes in the roof or without gas or electricity.

Virtually all of them would rather sell vital organs than get involved with the benefits system and their main point of contact with bureaucracy is the HMRC which may give you some idea why they have very little faith in receiving anything from the support schemes on offer.

Lumping all self employed builders together is like saying ‘All cyclists jump red lights’

So this boycotting will effect the multi-millionaire owners of the companies and not the lowly workers who need the jobs, right? Cool, I’m in.

Sounds good to me, the shit owners improve their act when it hits their bottom line or go out of business and someone else who hopefully isn’t a cock fills the gap.

If more folk had principles the Mike Ashley’s of this world would have been sorted long ago but unfortunately money trumps principles for many.

not the lowly workers who need the jobs, right?

Most of the crappiest companies have already tossed the ‘workers’ overboard, so any pain you can inflict on the likes of Ashley and Wetherspoon’s Tim will be a job well done in the new tomorrow

Hopefully, decent firms will have a long memory too. Good luck running a pub when no-one will sell you beer on account.

Don’t imagine the Fire Brigade will be getting it any easier either.

Our lot in North Yorkshire are actually doing about all they can and have employee reps fully involved in decisions and solutions. Thumbs up so far.

Virtually all of them would rather sell vital organs than get involved with the benefits system and their main point of contact with bureaucracy is the HMRC which may give you some idea why they have very little faith in receiving anything from the support schemes on offer.

Lumping all self employed builders together is like saying ‘All cyclists jump red lights’

Most of the ones I know are probably wishing their declared income had been a little more accurate.

Not as a name and shame of any particular company but the Insurance Industry is interesting – most of my policies come up for renewal around now and I’d normally expect a flurry of pestering calls. But instead it pretty much seems as if even my current insurers seem happy to let policies just laps without a reminder. I’ll give a bit of benefit of the doubt that home working and other disruptions mean things aren’t as slick as they might be but I’d hate for it to turn out companies are actively seeking to slough off polices and leave customers uninsured.

This is all very noble and it’d be great to able to avoid all these companies, but I still don’t see it as a good thing if these companies fold leaving many thousands of people unemployed. Not sure I’d see that as much of a victory.

Scroll up @choppersquad, you’ll see the oh-so-wise answers to my querying of the same thing. **** dreaming if you ask me.

Scroll up @choppersquad, you’ll see the oh-so-wise answers to my querying of the same thing. **** dreaming if you ask me.

Do you have a better proposal for encouraging these companies to improve their employment practices, or will you keep kidding yourself that nothing can be done about it?

Boycotting businesses with poor ethics will be beneficial for employees in the long run.

I will never enter a Wetherspoons or Sports Direct again.

We need to support good independent pubs and shops where possible.

hmrc. 😆

Ferrero Rocher made my son redundant this afternoon 🙁

Add virgin media to the list; telling their installers they’re providing an essential service by keeping people entertained and informed.
More corporate bollocks.
Make do with terrestrial and freesat.
Installations necessitate working inside homes.

Aldi have given all of their staff a 10% bonus to acknowledge how hard they are all working during this crisis

Tesco are doing the same, extra 10% on their wages right now.

Most of the ones I know are probably wishing their declared income had been a little more accurate.

This had crossed my mind!!

TomD – I am much more cynical that you. The likes of Ashley were in the first case thinking about their money and only their money and pushed into doing the right thing by the power of social media

anything else that benefits the Chinese State

I think we’ve always known what a dodgy bunch of ****s the Chinese government are (Tiananmen square etc) but I still can’t get my head around the doctor that warned about this virus being arrested and silenced.

I wonder how many lives that cost 🙁

Amazon.

Wasn’t much of a customer beforehand. Now that they’ve set up the relief fund for staff sick pay and inviting the public to donate, they’ll be even less likely to see a penny from me.

Jhoots Pharmacies.
£20 for Calpol.
£5 for 16 unbranded paracetamol.
Forcing Community Nurses to wait hours in-line for prescriptions for vulnerable patients.

I think they might be just a Midlands chain but many people swearing never to use them again.

I was going to add Cirque du Soleil to the list. They immediately dumped nearly all their staff and aren’t that quick at refunding ticket money to punters.

But it looks like they might be bankrupt soon anyway.

Oops

Vodafone , removing Turkey from free roaming and charging £6 per day instead.from May

Not great if you are stuck in Turkey

A handy list.

https://www.lewiscotter.com/brands

Evans Cycles too then?

Yes, for putting the prices of turbo trainer sup to well above RRP. Ok it’s not an essential item, but still shitty practice.

So this boycotting will effect the multi-millionaire owners of the companies and not the lowly workers who need the jobs, right? Cool, I’m in.

Well, yes. It may actually do them some good.

Imagine you’re Lacky #569845 at a Sports Direct store on a zero hours contract and people stop buying their cheap lonsdale boxer shorts form Sports Direct. Sure your out of a job, but you can go get another as Drone #458 wherever people go to get their sweatshop manufactured athliesure wear. Now Mike has been hit in the pocket he has to both improve conditions for his staff.

The number of boxer shorts sold doesn’t change when you don’t buy them at SD. Or bike parts if you don’t shop at Evans. The staff just go work somewhere else that sells them.

It’s not like boycotting a country where the population is mostly stuck there and dependant on foreign money.

Most of the ones I know are probably wishing their declared income had been a little more accurate.

It did occur me with all the “support ltd co directors” stuff doing the rounds. If you’ve paid yourself minimum wage and a massive dividend for the past however long to avoid paying tax and national insurance, then can you really come cap in hand with a straight face when HMRC only pays out at 80% of that “tax efficient not tax evasion” figure.

Add virgin media to the list; telling their installers they’re providing an essential service by keeping people entertained and informed.
More corporate bollocks.
Make do with terrestrial and freesat.
Installations necessitate working inside homes.

If there’s one good thing that comes from this mess it should be the classification of broadband as an essential utility on par with water gas and electric.

Ferrero Rocher made my son redundant this afternoon 🙁

That’s a shame, which country is he the ambassador for?

Can we add DFDS to this list? I was supposed to be sailing over to Newcastle for a week back in Scotland with the family, but their sailings are on hold until after we were supposed to go. Got an email saying that they were offering free cancellations or rescheduling, and given we have no idea when this’ll be over I opted to cancel. Turns out free cancellations actually means they’ll waive the normal cancellation fee, and that they’ll keep your deposit and still expect you to pay another 130€. Furious doesn’t even begin to cover it!

@misteralz If DFDS were unable to provide the service booked then you have a right to all your money back. In effect they cancelled a scheduled sailing, it’s not on hold it’s cancelled. You may need legal advice.

I can see the other side that money is required to keep the business solvent but the customer has the right to their money back if the service can not be provided.

Right? A lost deposit I could stomach, but cancelling the sailing and then asking for more money from us feels like exceptional pisstaking.

Just got off live chat with them. They’ve cancelled the booking with no further cost but won’t refund my deposit, rather they’ll take it off the cost off the next sailing I do, as long as I book it before the end of the year and the sailing itself is before the end of June next year. Given I don’t have any other plans to go over again, I guess that’s the equivalent of a lost deposit…

Is the deposit over £100? On a credit card? Go all section 75 on them.

170€, off our current account. Going to leave it as mrsalz still wants to go back to Scotland to visit after all this so she’s clinging to the fact that we’ve still got a deposit on a potential sailing to get her through. I’m still unimpressed, mind…

Jhoots Pharmacies.
£20 for Calpol.
£5 for 16 unbranded paracetamol.
Forcing Community Nurses to wait hours in-line for prescriptions for vulnerable patients.

Is this genuine? Do you have a source? I’ve heard of a few people profiteering but not companies, they deserve a massive fine.

Wife has just come off the phone to her employer. She has a few days of her notice left. The employer she was going to has furloughed their staff.

Her current employer, who promote themselves on how they look after their people, has refused to let her withdrawal her notice. They are just about to furlough a large proportion of their 2000 staff but they wouldn’t let her furlough through them despite 14 years service and no cost to them.

Is that worthy of a name and shame?

@Thebrick, it was all over the news either last week or the week before.

Wife has just come off the phone to her employer. She has a few days of her notice left. The employer she was going to has furloughed their staff.

Her current employer, who promote themselves on how they look after their people, has refused to let her withdrawal her notice. They are just about to furlough a large proportion of their 2000 staff but they wouldn’t let her furlough through them despite 14 years service and no cost to them.

Is that worthy of a name and shame?

Assume shes on 12 weeks notice with 14 years employment. If they “rehire” her they have to go through all that again, at a cost to them.
Can the new company not hire and immediately furlough her (at no cost to them)? Given its them that have given her an offer of employment, which they hopefully will still be keen on* once we are all back to work.

*Industry dependent I guess

Nope, rules for furlough are that you need to be employed as of 28th February. She’s not asking to be rehired by the current employer, she’s asking to not leave. She’s still employed there at this moment.

we probably won’t be avoiding them but aldi have been running special buy ad for garden furniture !!!! Probably quite a few garden centers spitting feathers!