Anyone else see him on the news?

Is it just me or is he a bit of a casa blanca? Sitting there in his villa in Malaga whilst saying his people are too lazy to get back to work and the furlough scheme should be scrapped.

He’s an absolute stroker of truly biblical proportions.

Get back to work and make me some more money! And if you should die in the process? Well, that’s just unlucky…

I think he has a point on some things. People who have been in furlough at my work some of them are disappointed to be back at work. They where enjoying it! Makes people like myself fell a bit pissed off as they are moaning about coming to work while we have been keeping the company going. Others are relieved of course and worried for their jobs.

Hasn’t he also had a brazen anti cyclist campaign on Twitter?

http://twitter.com/PimlicoPlumbers/status/1288850523790225409?s=19

He is a brazen anti-persons-on-bikes, yes.

I think he has a point on some things. People who have been in furlough at my work some of them are disappointed to be back at work. They where enjoying it!

Whether they’re enjoying it or not is not really the point, the scheme is in place to ensure they have jobs to go back to, not to make life difficult for people.

He’s not got a point.

He’s a typical RWinger top of the food chain loon – like all the Talk-radio fatsos like Mike Graham / Ferrari telling everyone to get back to work for the economy’s sake.

Useless idiots that the Country doesn’t need in a pandemic.. Very much surplus to our needs.

Richard Littlejohn too.

Hope they all shuffle away with neoliberalalism’s coming decline.

He has form around workers entitlements

Employment tribunal rules in favour of Pimlico Plumbers in employment status case

He’s a massive idiot, and I disagree with him on pretty much everything, but not this.
Furlough was supposed to keep people going while there was no work while we were in lockdown. Now it’s over, and there’s clearly work for plumbers as he’s asking them back. I’m sorry, but I don’t want my taxes to give £2.5k a Month to some lazy **** who has got used to sitting around on their arse.

He’s a prize tosser – but I know of several small companies who have asked their staff to come back to work and one said some are refusing as they don’t feel it’s ‘safe’. They are healthy and have no reason to refuse or isolate.

His HR advice was you can’t sack them but you can say – ‘that’s fine for you to stay at home, but it will be as unpaid leave’.

He’s a knob, but there is an issue if people refuse to return to work once appropriate Covid protocols are in place and they don’t have a good health based reason to do so.

One mate has gone back into his office as he gets more work done there than at home.

Another friend has brought all staff in as they run telephone based IT support, and they were struggling to provide a service when people were at home with kids etc.

My wife has been combining home based working, going into the office, and visiting clients at home throughout the lockdown, armed with just Facemasks and hand sanitizer.

If proper cleaning and social distancing procedures are in place, there’s no reason not to go in unless you or immediate family are vulnerable. And that’s been the case throughout lockdown, our HMRC office has had some staff in throughout where they couldn’t work from home.

Ah he was in the STW good books when he was saying Bollocks to Brexit.

He’s a bit of a thobber, but he’s in that Graft=£££ camp and whilst his staff / self-employed sub contractors might have had issue with their employment conditions, they were making a lot of money when they were working. Their Heating Engineers, Plumbers and Electricians earn just under £100k a year on average.

My 2p, a LOT of people have been quite happy to take the 80% and have most of the Spring and Summer off work, it’s pretty telling to me that traffic where I live is completely opposite to the norm, ‘rush hour’ is quiet but if I’m going to sites in the middle of the day the roads are busy. The guys who sub let part of our office were dragged back in kicking and screaming this week, openly joking about their long holidays.

There are some industries / roles left that simply cannot go back to work because of very necessary, very sensible rules meaning they can’t – I think it might be better to protect and extend their furlough scheme into 2021 and end the ones that I suspect employers are using protect their bottom lines.

If people have any sense of ‘duty’ they won’t get arsey when they have to go back to work. It is going to take many years to ‘pay back’ the furlough income, and we are going to be ‘paying’ it with public service cuts. Putting the ‘B’ word to one side for a minute.

However, when the whole tone of politics has been “**** everyone else, they just want to take all your hard earned” then it is hardly surprising that people don’t want to go back to work – especially for an old-school Victorian ’employer’ like old shithead here.

Put a chip on everyone’s shoulder to take political advantage of and this is the result.

openly joking about their long holidays

Their Heating Engineers, Plumbers and Electricians earn just under £100k a year on average.

F me…. I’m on the wrong trade!

I’m sure there’s a large element of people not wanting to return whilst they’re receiving 80% of pay.

However, the longer people stay at home the more the economy, and ultimately everyone, will suffer.

I was up early business news on 5live and the boss from Biffa praise the workforce so much gush, words like loved ones, cherish,for sure etc but when asked if those on the frontline were going to get paid if having to isolate like a politician he ducked and dived no effin chance yet office staff no probs they can work from home
The Diageo chief an accountant to trade on later when asked very much the same

Doncha just hate it when somebody you despise says something you agree with?

I don’t want my taxes to give £2.5k a Month to some lazy **** who has got used to sitting around on their arse

I very much agree with this ^

Furlough is a great idea but getting some of the feckless back to work is going to be tricky ;o)

Remember the TV show he did where the staff got to renegotiate their pay, with each other?

He knew that not everyone was on the same pay, in the same jobs, so rather than just pay the ones that were at the lower end more, he said they had to get it off others in the team/office.

The minimum wage cleaner got an extra £1k a year off a marketing guy in the office on £50k a year.

The £million a year for the boss was off limits

shitty Barry Manilow wannabe

He is a well known tosser but I do think small companies have abused furlough. I know of quite a few who gave it to their employees as an option i.e. fancy 4 months off at 80% pay. (small insurance company, vet and others)
Helps the employees but also helps the owners as they will lose less money out of the business if they are not paying their staff while business is low. Once furlough is over the companies will have to do what they would have done any way and job losses will flood in.

Something tells me that if you are a plumber on 100k a year then you’d be pretty keen to get off furlough given your wages will have been vastly reduced.

Furlough was supposed to keep people going while there was no work while we were in lockdown. Now it’s over, and there’s clearly work for plumbers as he’s asking them back. I’m sorry, but I don’t want my taxes to give £2.5k a Month to some lazy **** who has got used to sitting around on their arse..

It’s probably worth catching the full interview for some context. The plumbers themselves never stopped working. He didn’t furlough any of them. Its the office staff he’s telling to get back into the office. And the way he put it was basically ‘I’m not interested in listening to your concerns. Get back into the office NOW! And f you don’t then **** off, you’re out of a job!”

I’m paraphrasing slightly, but not much.

I think a lot of people have got a number of genuine concerns about jumping onto public transport at peak times and heading into a city centre office. He’s not interested in listening to them though.

uselesshippy – and others… fact check; source is mullins himself on 5live this morning.
He was referring to office staff specifically; none of his plumbers have been furloughed – they have all worked through lockdown.
Think about the 4 Fs:
– First
– Find
– (the) F******
– Facts
Don’t let your ignorance of the facts get in the way of your vitriol.

I think a lot of people have got a number of genuine concerns about jumping onto public transport at peak times and heading into a city centre office. He’s not interested in listening to them though.

They could always commute by bike… Oh, hang on…

Ah he was in the STW good books when he was saying Bollocks to Brexit.

As he was speaking from his villa in Marbella I see why now…..

Some individuals will always abuse the system, but some companies will too. If he’s having problems getting people back to work, maybe they don’t enjoy their jobs/workplace, or don’t feel that they are safe doing them. It’s gonna be tricky to get plumbers and electricians back into strangers homes when there is a killer virus about. As for office workers… It’s the same as schools, it’s a risk as your(and family s) social bubble increases massively.

I’m self employed, retail owner, I see around 300 different members of the public every day and have been open throughout. If I’d shut up my shop and claimed furlough, I don’t know if I’d have opened it again until financially forced too. Wife is with the most vunerable cattagory and has only just stopped isolating this month. We’ve been living separately since march so that the shop could stay open. We both still have huge concerns over safety, ours and our customers and I can relate with people still on furlough. But personally with the recession we are about to have id be more worried about continued employment than the virus now.

Beat me to it colournoise.

Has he heard of the cycle to work scheme?

Jesus, Rod Stewart needs to stop shoving blow up his nose.

Helps the employees but also helps the owners as they will lose less money out of the business if they are not paying their staff while business is low.

Well… that was one of the reasons for the furlough scheme… no?

Oh I’m sorry, I’m really happy that a bunch of lazy **** office workers should get to choose whether they work, or sit on their arse at my expense.😳
The article I read said approximately 30 staff, that’s £75,000 a month, at the expense of the tax payer. If you have a genuine medical issue, fine, if not, go to work if your employer has work for you.

Is it actually much safer now than during the full lockdown at its peak? I don’t know the stats.

Many people might not be in a high risk category but have someone at home who is. My missus is an organ transplant recipient on immuno-suppressants so in the highest risk shielding group – I went back to work photographing a wedding the other day and did not feel comfortable at all.

If I was back to working full time and getting public transport I would say the risk would be worryingly high.

He was on Jeremy Vine this morning. I thought most of the negative comments above until he started explaining.

The day the furlough scheme was announced. I think it was 75% of the office staff left that day. He didn’t have any problem with people who had genuine medical concerns. His problem was with the fit, healthy and often young. Who refused to come in because of the dangers to their health. The same people clearly had no concerns when they were posting on Facebook about their day on the beach etc.

He was asking for the furlough scheme to be scrapped and a new one to take it’s place. With the only people being able to claim having genuine medical concerns.

He also has a business in Marbella and claims to have worked throughout all the lockdown.

Although i’m sure the business in Marbella has no tax advantages. Especially when it comes to his villa and going there on holiday. Sorry I meant to work.

Isn’t he well known for being a throbber?

If proper cleaning and social distancing procedures are in place, there’s no reason not to go in unless you or immediate family are vulnerable.

Disagree. If you can WFH in the current climate then you should be doing so if your employer allows it. This reduces the risk to everyone else who does have to attend the workplace.

And if your employer doesn’t allow it then there’s no harm in asking why not.

I do think small companies have abused furlough. I know of quite a few who gave it to their employees as an option i.e. fancy 4 months off at 80% pay.

There’s a few who have furloughed staff and then expected them to carry on working. There was a thread about it a little while back.

If you can WFH in the current climate then you should be doing so if your employer allows it.

It’s not a case of allowing it, it’s the other way around. If an employee can (and wants to) WFH then an employer cannot force them into an office unless they can justify that decision.

…at the expense of the tax payer

The entire point of furlough is that the alternative is likely to cost far more. It’s not a gift from our Tory government, it’s designed to save money.

Quite surprised at the amount of emotionally driven opinions here to be honest.

Also, working from home is a completely separate topic. Those working from home are still working.

It’s not a case of allowing it, it’s the other way around. If an employee can (and wants to) WFH then an employer cannot force them into an office unless they can justify that decision.

Yes, you can make a statutory request, but it’s pretty easy for a company to state business reasons which deny your request.

We see him about – he lives about a mile from us and his grand daughter was in School with my Daughter.
He is a poster boy for graft=£££ tacky new money.
Yes – bit of a nobber but he does have a point in this instance.

He was absolutely bang on when interviewed on Jeremy Vine. He said the ones who dont want to come back are the 25 year old ones in the parks, beaches and pubs . The ones with underlying conditions should be treated differently and probably on a different scheme.
That said he does normally come across as a prick on some of the other channel 5 shows hes been on.

You’d think with all that money he could get a decent haircut.