- Brittania Hotels - Workers sacked on the spot and asked to leave accomodation immediately
- Wilko - They've removed sick pay for staff.
- Pret a Manger - Cutting staff hours and wages
- InVentry Ltd - Poor for COVIR-19 - SSP only and staff still attending offices
- Britannia Hotels Ltd - No support. Sacked from their job and evicted from their accommodation at the hotel they work at.
- Frasers - SSP for self isolation, full pay if you are tested positive for covid19 but there’s no testing taking place.
- Cygnet Healthcare - Sick pay limited to 7 days but requiring 14 days leave to be taken.
- Heriot-Watt University - Kept Edinburgh library open until Friday 20th March, endangering staff and students
- Wetherspoons - Pubs remaining open increasing the risk of transmission. Criticising official government social distancing guidance also increasing the risk of transmission. Money before public duty and lives.
- Cineworld/Picturehouse - Fired many Front of House Staff on Zero Hour Contracts with no notice. Many found out by social media.
- Red Bus Cartridges - Selling 6x30ml of Hand sanitizer for £28.99 on 19/03, now reduced to £24.99. Taking advantage of customers.
- Card Factory - All overtime is cancelled and shop staff are being warned to expect 25% reductions in contracted hours (all are on part-time contracts). Blatant attempt to lower wage bill before being forced to continue paying staff during a lockdown!
- Giraffe - Closed and staff told need to use annual leave if want pay, otherwise no pay
- Better UK - The facilities are still open and staff still have to go to work - therefore making it impossible to follow the government's advice on social distancing and avoiding all non essential contact. Furthermore, Better also emailed gym members to encourage gym and pool use to stay active during the pandemic. They have reduced classes by 50% - unclear if they are still paying instructors whose hours have been cut.
- Wetherspoons - The Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin has vowed to keep his 867 UK pubs open as long as possible during the coronavirus crisis and defended his right to issue public pronouncements on the best way to contain the outbreak.
Speaking on Friday, Martin denied that weighing in on pandemic containment and keeping the chain’s pubs open was irresponsible- HOW CAN HE DO THIS??? ITS SO DANGEROUS!!
- Barclays Bank - I had to go off to care for my stage 4 cancer suffering father and they have removed my salary and given me a disciplinary for this.
- Paperchase - All stores remaining open, meaning staff can't social distance. Staff will only receive SSP if told to self isolate by a doctor. Anyone off work to care for a dependent will go unpaid. High risk employees may come to work unless pregnant.
- Foxtons - Demanded access to property in which somebody with COVID-19 was self-isolating, putting both staff and prospective tenant at risk.
- Specsavers - Asking staff to volunteer for unpaid leave, temp lay off, reduction in hours or use annual leave. If no volunteers then threats of terminations/redundancy. Some staff have already been laid off.
- Sunseeker - Staff laid off and others reduced to half pay.
- Aviva - Full sick pay and employees who work from home to take care of kids will be paid, but majority of staff are still required to attend the office (open plan, >2000 employees) every day because the VPN won't support all of them until end of next week or later
- Moda in Pelle - Everyone apart from management has been laid off with zero notice for 4+ weeks (time is unknown). We are getting zero support or pay even though they released a statement days before saying we would be supported fully. They have increased the returns policy to create more online orders which means more trouble in stores.
- BBC - Ended contracts for all freelance production staff with one weeks pay.
- Picturehouse and Cineworld - All have had their contracts terminated
- Greggs - Good - paying for those who self isolate Bad- store remain open although only takeout option -still taking cash
- Greggs - Good - paying for those who self isolate Bad- store remain open although only takeout option -still taking cash
- Oliver Bonas - Update: they've let go of all new employees
- Barclays - Encouraging staff to work when sick, and threatening those who need to self isolate by saying it counts towards their sickness record and therefore could lead to them being sacked
- Select Fashion - They made redundant 100's of employees yesterday that had worked for the for less than two years. Rejuced managers to 4 days per week. While most other nonessential retail stores are closing the are trying there best to keep theirs open but at what risk to their staff.
- B&M Bargains - No paid sick leave, even for workers at highest risk unless can present sick note, which would saturate an already saturated NHS. Even then its only SSP given.
- Paragon Pubs (Staffordshire, Shropshire) - Laid off c. 500 staff
- Steelite ceramics - Cut hours and made redundancies
- Greggs - Are refusing to shut their shops
- Eden mill - Staff made redundant via email
- Easyjet - Change in working conditions, forced 3 months unpaid leave
- END Clothing - They have refused to let office based staff work from home although it is completely feasible. This includes high risk/vulnerable people. Staff have been told they must come into the office or stop getting paid.
They’ve told staff they will all get SSP rather than their contracted sick pay or they can take unpaid leave. Unpaid leave for dependents, too.
The company makes millions a week, has a staff of 650, and is being cavalier with the lives of its employees.
- Peacocks - Firing staff after not making target for only three days in, no holiday/redundancy pay just told don't come in. Told anyone under five years contract is not safe. No sick pay. Refusal to allow office staff to work from home. Not allowed to wear gloves even though dealing with money all day. Threat of being fired if can't make it into work.
- Peacocks - No support what so ever, failure to show up threatened with losing your job.
- Costa - Provided 0 information for staff, no reassurance, no extra measures to keep them safe such, no sanitizer available, no proper guidance for staff on hand hygiene and no plan in place for jobs. Staff have been told if they lose customers they'll just reduce hours.
- Aramark - Sent staff home on 2 weeks forced holiday that they have to repay with extra days worked
- Easyjet - EasyJet staff may no longer be given food on shifts Easyjet will go ahead with a £174 million dividend payout to shareholders despite appealing for taxpayer support.
- CPG Logistics - Asking employees to work overtime completely unpaid for a few hours before clocking in. We were also asked to work weekends unpaid but in return anyone who is doing it is offered one extra day of holiday despite being told we may not have jobs much longer. Someone was jokingly told that they are selfish for refusing to work for free at the weekend by a foreman- "don't you want a job to come back to at the end of all this?"
- Starbucks - Putting staff at risk. Open toilets. Ques in shop. Forced to work. Other staff members know to have family members with Coronavirus. Yet no isolation.
- Starbucks - Pressure to work despite risks. Toilets open to public and cleaning by staff. Ques in store. Cash used.
- Picturehouse Cinemas and Cineworld - https://twitter.com/search?q=picturehouse&src=typed_query
Supportive, but no organised response yet
- Slimming World - One month guaranteed pay for employees, temp staff immediately let go.
Self employed staff given half pay for three weeks.
- Coventry University - Workers are still not allowed to work from home, even if in the high risk category. No measures being put in place in the library, business as usual. Employees facing disciplinary action if they choose to self isolate.
- Hotel Du Vin - 20/03/2020 Staff handed letters informing of immediate lay off / short time working for the next 4 weeks, with a further review then. Zero hour contracts - reduction in hours or no hours. Normal Salaried staff - 50% reduction in working hours, and therefore 50% pay. This avoids redundancy pay which is payable on temporary lay offs of 4 week's or more. Heads of Departments (HoDs) - 20% reduction in pay and hours with exception of some Sales HoDs who are 50%.
- Space NK - Sent emails to head office staff asking them to volunteer in stores. Stores remained open until the 20th March and staff were worried about risking their health by coming in to work.
- Peacocks - No support cosing to make staff redundant to save on costs not ckosing
- wincanton plc (for B&Q, branston site) - some, up to the minimum. the management team are working from home. on the shop floor level it’s possible to argue yourself into isolation on meeting government criteria if you have the required knowledge and will. some extra door handle cleaning occurring. limited contact across different shifts but not on same shift. extremely limited sanitiser, MHE remains mostly uncleaned as do scanners, radios, desks and computers. biometric clock system being used by 200+ staff members without sanitation. pens being shared. staff largely unconcerned and uninformed. disaster waiting to happen.
- Arcadia Group: Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis - Topshop closes its 300 UK stores as furious employees claim they were laid off one hour before the Government unveiled its coronavirus job retention plan
- Edinburgh Woollen Mill - Terminated all staff with under 2 years service
- Boohoo - Just wanted to add that they’re still making photographers, models and stylists etc. to come to work in the coming weeks. I work in the retouching department and we were retouching face masks the other day which I assume they’re going to start selling on site.
- G1 Group - Fired a number of employees to save money, no sick pay, immediate termination
- Next - All stores still open as they class themselves as an "essential"
Still holding their mid season sale in store
- Sports Direct / House of Fraser - 0, sports direct and HoF have laid off 0 hour contracts today. No news, updates or support for staff.
- Reiss - Friend employed by them been fired to avoid paying out during coronovirus
- Pho restaurant - Fired people (zero hour contracts), staff discovered in social media. Email send at 22:00 saying we lost the jobs (social Media was live at 16:00)
- Wallis - Closed stores on the 20 th, laid everyone off, promised to pay us till 4th April at the time of writing, communication has been poor, management support is non existing. Warned everyone to keep what we've heard off of social media. No support financial or other wise
- Haart Estate Agents - "Amanda Haynes, a senior sales negotiator at Haart estate agents in Camberwell in London, claims she was given two-minutes notice for a conference call in which she was told her contract was to be cancelled immediately."
- BSRIA Ltd - Offices remain open. Aren't telling workers to work from home if possible. No pay if caring for a relative. People who are sick are asked to work from home
- Lycamobile - Lycamobile has over 500 employees based in an office in Canary Wharf in London. They have no remote working policy and as of 21st March they have not allowed any of their employees to follow government advice and work from home. They claim all roles can only be done in the office however the majority of employees have laptops and mobiles and are able to conduct their duties remotely. The reason that employees are still going into the office is because Lyca only pays 3 days sick leave per annum, anything more than this and you don’t get paid. During the course of the virus outbreak there have been a number of cases of employees displaying symptoms of the virus, instead of sending these employees home, Lycamobile moved them to a different floor in their building away from the main office....they were still happy for them to come to work though and share communal zones. The only thing Lyca has done for its employees during this outbreak is to offer free parking If an employee doesn’t want to use public transport. They are expecting all employees to turn up for work on Monday. A number of employees have submitted requests for Home working but these have either been ignored or refused.
- Specsavers - No sick pay. ‘Offering’ government 80% pay only and keeping stores open. Making staff encourage as many customers into the business as possible.
- Cineworld/PictureHouse - Reportedly fired long term staff, kept on staff who haven't been working there 18 months (aren't wntitled to sick pay.
- Roy's of Wroxham - None - work as normal as sales are booming. Staff concerns are ignored. The checkouts are 'the safest place you can be'.
- Waterstones - Keeping stores open and making no efforts to protect employees from infection.
- Costa - First appeared good; promised average pay over 3 months for workers if stores close. But are refusing to close stores and instead are hugely reducing hours, & therefore hugely cutting pay.
- Reed Recruitment - Redundancies for central support functions
- Be Wiser Insurance - Employees encouraged to use annual leave if needing to isolate, else absence goes towards sickness levels which can result in disciplinary actions
- Travis Perkins - Not paying staff if they go into self isolation
- The Edinburgh Woollen Mill - Made all staff with under 2 years service redundant without pay or consultation
- Mitie - Very bad. Complete lack of guidance. Half hearted message that non essential staff should work at home. Senior leadership not demonstrating social distancing and rewarding non essential people who come to work. No guidance on sick pay.
- BSRIA Limited - Forcing non-essential employees who could easily work from home to come in to the office.
- Bristol University - Refusing to guarantee short term contracts beyond April, telling temporary staff to prepare for unemployment as they move to "safeguard revenue streams". Priorities = student satisfaction, preparedness for new students, and REF submission. Temporary staff: Expendable.
- Travis Perkins (specifically Toolstation, but everything under that umbrella) - Limited use of ppe and cleaning but no extra provisions made for short staffed shops, no extra pay for those in shops (but all head office workers working from home), letter written to govt claiming to be an “essential service” in the event of lockdown so people can carry doing diy jobs in their homes, I guess, but none of the store based employees have been asked about how comfortable they are continuing working during a global pandemic in small stores full of customers
- Curry’s PC world - Close the shops ! Reduce their chances of infection and death for families
- Pizza Express - Employee lay-offs without pay
- HSS Hire - They have been giving out laptops to their office workers for weeks for when the time comes to stay at home. However they are pretty much business as usual as you'll see from their Twitter they have to work one week at home one week at the office, any time off is used from holiday. Although we had a family member isolated in hospital and tested for Corona he was told to go to work instead of self isolating. Luckily she tested negative but if she hadn't he could have been spreading it to hundreds of staff it's disgusting profit before people.
- Inflatanation inflatable theme parks - Sending out emails for 50% on the 19th march for the rest of March putting public and staff at risk and ignoring social distancing advice
- Debenhams - Nothing, refusing to close and expecting staff to still come in
- Primark - Gloves were not provided by the company, our store manager bought them for us out of her own pocket. Failure to tell us if the stores will close and when (so now we can’t make plans to find another job), if they do close we will only be paid for 2 weeks, after those 2 weeks they will decide what to do with us. Those with children are allowed a week off work but then must return or use their holidays, or ask to have shift patterns rearranged. Staff are being sent home because the stores are so quiet. A positive is that if you are self isolating you will be paid for 2 weeks, and not have to wait for the 3 day grace period for payment to kick in.
- Waterstones - No hand sanitiser provided, no wipes, no disinfectant, no reduced shop hours, cash still being accepted. We're being told by head office that gloves and masks are not permitted, meanwhile administrative staff have all been sent home for their "safety" —but who gives a fuck about the the frontline staff who are out there filling @Waterstones CEO James Daunt's pockets?
- Greggs - They have claimed to provide pay for those self isolating for two weeks, but the stores are all open and business as usual, claiming that they are a vital industry when arguably they are selling non essential items. There hasn't been sufficient processes put into place to protect staff, there is no hand sanitiser for customers coming into the shop. Pret announced they are closing their stores so why shouldn't greggs? They are putting employees and customer's at risk as it isn't possible to self isolate or social distance given the circumstances.
- Inchcape - Workshop/showrooms still open, people allowed to sit and drink tea/coffee. If isolating SSP no pay if taking time off to look after children.
- HMV - All stores open, only SSP if required to self-isolate. No plans to pay staff more than this if stores do close.
- Pho Restaurant - Fired all employees without notice, except for a small number of chefs and management staff for takeaway, before the government had announced the 80% staff wages
- Empire Cinemas - Those employed for 2 years or less sacked (meaning a couple of branches opened for less than 2 years have lost all their staff). Staff paid minimum contracted hours - for most, although working 20-25 per week, are on 4 hour contract so a significant drop in income.
- Asda - None. No soap, gloves or hand sanitizer have been proved. Some colleagues have bought there own.
- Dixon’s Carphone - Keeping all stores open as well as making 3000 staff redundant. Telling the media “40% will be kept” but offering full time staff 6-12hour positions.
- Waterstones - Strong - trending
- Ryman Stationery - Workers being told to keep the store open for as long as possible despite staff members being off so staff overworked. Self-Isolation is unpaid. Staff also having to travel to cover other stores to avoid them having to close for a day/open less hours. No contactless. Managers are still on our backs about achieving targets. However head office staff are working from home and they have provided hand sanitiser/cleaning products to store workers.
- Wren Kitchens - Very poor. No support given by HR and head office - told business as usual. No hand sanitiser provided - told to supply our own. SSP only given if we show any symptoms. Encouraged to take unpaid leave or annual leave.
- Laura Ashley - Only pay you if you can work from home - whilst not allowing anyone outside of manger role to work from home. No SSP or company sick pay if you are self isolating by choice (without symptoms, even if family high risk) or if you are off with children due to school closures.
- Halfords - Staff are required to work.
- Arcadia - None - “temporary laid off” only being paid until end of March with is two weeks.
- Monsoon Accessorize - Stores have been closed but staff have been asked to go back into the clean them
- Pavers Shoes - Reduced contracted hours by 10% from April and reduced pay. Contracted hours still need to be worked. Only SSP for those off with illnesses. Asked employees to take unpaid leave if they can.
- Hobbycraft - Dangerous. All employees told to work regardless. No sanitizer left in stores. No social distancing at tills. Pay being withheld from those at risk, told to take unpaid leave, jobs being threatened. Advice via company intranet is contradictory to UK Government \ NHS advice. Their basket spend and daily net profit are up. That it their only concern.
- The Edinburgh woollen mill - Made many staff choose between a 50% reduction in pay and hours or being made redundant. And got rid of everyone who’d been their for under 2 years.
- Halfords - Staff expected to work through pandemic currently. Sick pay from day 4 only. Safety equipment in short supply.
- NG Bailey - Requiring all employees continue to report to work even against government advice that non essential or 'key' workers should WFH. They have the capability to WFH but are refusing staff and threatening unpaid leave even despite the Government allowances put in place. Equally, upon the annoucnement of school closures they threatened parents with unpaid leave to care for their children.
- The Range - No hand sanitizers provided, we had to buy ours if wanted some shield, no extra cleaning of surfaces as they said on social media,
- Brook Street Agency - No paid sick leave whilst working in civil service, ssp if able to get note. No pay at all if forced lockdown.
- RSVP Media Ltd - Bully, manipulation and scaremongering into silence. Company refuses to let us work from home.
- Halfords Harrogate - Reaction has been "we will give you sanitiser". So far, (2 weeks after being told this), we have seen 0. Also, customers are being told via small A4 signs to stand 2 meters away. That doesnt work. This weekend in Harrogate was worse than Christmas time - customers all over, standing on top of each other.
- Vertu Motors - SSP for first 3 days, then full salary for no more than 14 calendar days, if needed to self isolate
- McDonald’s - Promised to stay open as takeaway - 24 hours later announced all stores closed. Staff found out via social media.
- Audible (Owned by Amazon) - Call center employees for Audible are forced to come in to the London office despite Amazon having the technical capabilities to work from home. Amazon customer service phone agents across the world are now working from home whereas Audible are not. Office space is shared and people travelling in from all over London on public transport. Basically, it is Amazon who have the control over setting up working from home for us rather than Audible. Employees have been told we don't have to come in if we don't want to. But we are zero-hour contract workers so would not see a single penny if we decided not to. They confuse their understanding of wanting to come in and NEEDing to come in to keep a roof over our heads.
- Gall Ziedler Consultants (UK) [Engineering Consultancy for projects incl HS2] - Poor. Hostility to employees who dare ask. Boss is insulated and remote working but willing to put employees and their families at risk.
- Halfords - Stores remain open as of Mon 23rd March. Social distancing is made impossible, staff are still carrying out audio and technology fits inside customer cars. Staff actively encouraged to approach customers upon entering to offer a “£15 car check”. Emails to managers celebrating relative sales figures. Staff in many stores no longer have access to PPE and in some cases source their own. Daily updates promised to staff, last update as of today was produced Fri 20th March.
- JD sports - Made to work In office despite having the facility to WFH
- No7 - Premium beauty to withdraw from boots but No7 staff to stay. Only just stopped matched made service
- Ernest Jones - Stores still remain ‘proudly’ open despite selling non essential jewellery and watches. Staff may have two weeks full sick pay only if they show symptoms.
- PGL - Shameful & selfish, putting staff and guests at risk. The staff were all called into group meetings on Friday afternoon (given they still had children and teachers on breaks right up to Thursday). All 'fixed term' and 'seasonal' workers given less than 24 hours notice to pack up and leave. This led to mass panic (many of the staff are young people) and the worst case of irresponsible behaviour by the Management Team I have seen. Family members and friends were forced to travel to the Isle of Wight (the centre I am specifically writing about) by ferry in order to assist with clearing of rooms and possessions - Management mandated that staff would not be permitted to leave anything behind and return later to collect. Now some of these 'Fixed Term' workers have been employed on rolling contracts by the company for 5+ years, they should have been classified as full time & permanent, but the greed of the PGL management knows that leaving them as fixed term gives them almost zero rights. Putting it into perspective, most are paid minimum wage, with a compulsory deduction for accommodation and meals. The centres are hoping these same young people will re-apply for their own jobs when they are allowed to reopen.
- Merlin Entertainments - Various 'Seasonal staff' ie, frontline staff (performers, shop staff) that have been contractually employed for less than 2 years have had contracts terminated with immediate effect.
- GAME - Head office workers with coughs forced to come in. Employees who could work from home not permitted to. Store workers forced to come in. Closed belong centres citing safety of staff but then moved the staff to retail and still forced to come in.
- Gamestop - Originally listed themselves as an essential business, then shut stores only when absolutely necessary. Refused to shut down such high-contact areas of stores such as tester console units.
- Fabricland - Nothing. Shops remain open, no direct information for staff.
- Greggs - They're closing now
- McDonalds UK - Closed all stores and laid off store staff
- Taylor Wimpey - Limited. Basic hand hygiene, being asked to keep 2m+ apart.
- Black Sheep Coffee - Scaled down their workforce to a skeleton crew and placed all other employees on unpaid leave.
- NCC Group PLC - Everyone sent home to prevent exposure, except consultants still carrying out billable work on client sites. Management guidance is "attend client site unless you have corona virus".
- The Body Shop - Terminated all fixed term contracts
- Joules - Laid off limited term employees after government support announced
- The Hut Group - They handpicked which staff could stay in the office (coincidentally this worked out to be the top 20% of earners) and threatened anyone who tried to work from home. They have woeful customer service and questionable delivery times, which makes them a horrible option for anyone trying to use them as an ecommerce platform.
FYI - they own MyProtein and lookfantastic (better known by their brands). Also threatened to fire all their hotel staff early on.
- BT - No updates. Staff on the floor don't know what's going on. Existing entry says good updates from senior leaders that's not the experience in certain sites. No free meals either. No social distancing despite an entry on their internal msg board saying this has been passed to the ops managers. Increased targets due to natural increase in demand from people needing additional broadband due to wfh meaning that staff were achieving targets too easily. They released 2 new broadband speeds with no staff training to fix orders when they go wrong. Not unusual for bt training is very poor at the best of times. No cleaning visible despite promises of deeper cleans, no supplies due to poor planning, people asked to get own supplies. Classed as key workers for all, not necessary.
- Coral Ladbrokes (GVC) - Contracted hours only for 1 week, no details about further...
- HCL IBS - If you already have a work supplied laptop stay home and get paid, but we don’t have any more laptops so either take SSP or come to work. Ask a neighbour or friend to look after your child. You are a key worker send your child to school. Living with a vulnerable person isn’t enough you have to be vulnerable yourself.
- Fraser Group - includes Sports Direct and Evans Cycles - Thirty minutes after Boris Johnson’s announcement tonight of a nationwide shutdown, the staff at Sports Direct and Evans Cycles were emailed by their bosses and told they are essential workers.
“Bosses at Sports Direct have said all stores will remain open because selling sporting and fitness equipment makes the company a vital asset during a national shutdown.”
- Evans and sports direct - Not closing despite essential lockdown
- Keystone MIS - Employees not working from home and still expected to go into offices
- Whsmith - We are being classed as essential even though we have units that dont sell anything that can be classed as essential buy. All units are being kept open. Staff expected to clean all tills and self service checkouts every hour with disinfectant but no social distancing stickers on floor or any plans to give employees paid time off
- Laura Ashley - Open customer services after lockdown. No cleaning. Desks 1m apart.
- Showcase Cinemas - Staff all on zero-hour contracts, which means there is no pay during the time they are closed. Advised to go and look for government assistance.
- END. Clothing - 24/03/20 UPDATE* END. is still making their staff turn up to work even after Boris' instructions to only travel for ESSENTIAL work. This shows a total disregard for the well-being of employees.
- & Other Stories - Poor- have closed their store and are only paying staff for 14 days
- Wetherspoons - Bonuses accrued have been wiped, no pay aside from govt 80% statutory pay, which Tim Martin himself said would be weeks before coming into effect, staff told to go and apply for a job at Tesco instead.
- The School of Life - The School of Life has kept their shop open and not implemented any social distancing practices nor have they provided any support to their workers who work zero-hour contracts. SOL has also been very apprehensive to have people work from home.
- The Barbican/City of London Corporation - As coronavirus hit the UK & theatres, galleries & concert venues across the UK began to close, Barbican's customer-facing staff (many casual workers with no formal contract or entitlement to sick pay) began to worry, asking management about what happens in the event of closure, feeling conflicted about advice from government about not going to large gatherings vs requirement to work with large numbers of public, concerns about self-isolating without being entitled to sick pay.
Afternoon of March 14th: Email from CEO Nick Kenyon addressed to 0 hours casual staff, who expected him to address these fears. Instead, he gave week-old advice on how to wash hands and stated "Fear of catching COVID-19 is not a valid reason to miss work", with no reassurance about job or pay security as all around the sector was shutting its doors.
Tuesday 17th - Casual workers see on social media that the building is closing, a couple of hours before receiving an email from management.
In the week since then there has been vague communication saying that pay would be for "shifts on the rota this week" without clarity of how long this will continue - more than 1 week? Past the 3 weeks already assigned by rota? No clarity on whether pay would be full or minimum call time, or of how this will impact staff who haven't been put on the rota but rely week-to-week on picking up shifts from others.
SOME sporadic reassuring responses from individual line managers to date. Different statements made across different departments (customer experience, box office, retail, bars, art gallery) relating to job security, pay, and how much 0 hour workers are valued by Barbican & City of London.
Top-level management has taken over a week "deciding" what support their vital team of hundreds of 0 hours casual staff are worthy of (if any at all) through this crisis.
- H & T Pawnbrokers - Classed as Key workers as in financial sector. Have to take unpaid leave if have childcare problems. Company will not close. Not given any distancing measures, have only been given hand sanitizer, handwash guidelines and told to clean surfaces every half hour. Still have to deal with cash and touch customers jewellery.
- Machine Mart - All stores still open. They run an online delivery system but refuse to adjust in response to advice for everyone to stay at home where possible. No guidance for staff on how to sell to customers to minimise risk, and no extra measures taken to support any workers in store. Only option for staff is to isolate if they have symptoms for 14 days on SSP.
- Aviva - Making some employees come into the office as they don't have enough VPN licences to all work from home
- Regus - Employees still have to go in to work. This is global, including areas such as Italy and Spain. We are told if the offices close then we will get no pay, you have to use your annual leave. We’re not being forced to go to work, but we won’t get anything. Managers are desperately trying to help their teams but no one from above is helping. Clients are also receiving no help or advice, just that it’s their choice not to be in the office and they are still being forced to pay their rent and other services in full. Tone deaf emails and staff keep saying business as usual and we should keep being motivated and upbeat.
- Designer Exchange Ltd - Retail store open but reduced working hours
- British Airways - They are not allowing workers to wear gloves or masks, and are forcing employees to be in close proximity to passengers, putting their lives in danger. They are also making it hard for older people and those with pre-existing health conditions to take unpaid leave.
- Royal Mail - My partner is a postwoman for Royal Mail and all advice has been completely avoided with no company comms at all. Today - 24.03.2020 - They finally issued gloves to staff, prior to this it was business as usual with sorting rooms full of people and sharing vans. There has no comms from anyone aside from an email from the CEO last week saying they were doing all they could. It's ridiculous, my partner is asthmatic which they are aware of and nothing was said, done or communicated whatsoever. They are classed as key workers yet have no PPE until gloves were provided this morning. They are now working on their own, doing a walk per employee. This means work is doubling up as each walk or round was usually split between two people. We have no idea if they are being paid overtime as they are now working more hours. It's lubricous.
- Gear4music - No working from home, no closing, not contingency plan, 'business as usual' with 300+ individuals despite not being an essential business.
- BBC - To add to the BBC slot, broadcast support workers are being told they have to go to the office and cannot work from home, if they're scheduled for work they have to go in.
- Daysoft ltd - Workers worried because there working in a factory with 125 other people ..
- G4S - None
- Wetherspoons - Tim Martin released a video telling staff to work elsewhere while the pubs shut as the company wouldn't be paying them unless the government covered 80 percent of the salaries.
- Lo-Dough - Itsa very small business providing low calorie bread. before the lock down they were doing nothing now they've just advised to keep 2 metres apart and wash our hands. they still open even though its not essential and making us work longer hours (10 instead of 8) told us if profits drop then they will close and not before.
- Connect distribution - No hand stanilizers and being forced to work in large groups
- N Brown - Most work from home if able, those in customer and financial services (100+) still have to come into the office in central Manchester to be available for customer phone and online queries.
- Connect distribution services ltd - Given oven cleaner to prevent spread that's about it
- Yodel - Support staff(Finance,Hr etc..)given 4 weeks unpaid leave.
- Millers vanguard - Sending the workforce out 3 to a van, working in places like London and classing staff as key workers even though the work is basically cleaning machinery in bakeries, the running of the bakery is not dependent on how clean the machines are.
- ADT security - Laid off 20 people in Mancheser office
- Miller & Carter - Prior to pub/restaurant ban: Gov policy on self-isolation for those visiting Northern Italy was updated 7 days into what would have been 14 day self-isolation period for some staff members, but head office saw "no problem" with them still working because they had already been working the week prior. No concern for their other employees or their patrons who staff members could still pass the virus onto for the following 7 days.
- BT - No support. Social distancing not in place as of 23/03 in Leeds Plusnet office. Company exploiting key worker status to keep non essential staff in the call centres.
- Debenhams - No reaction, are refusing to contact their employees to assure them they will be paid. Also rumoured to be using this opportunity to close a bunch of stores permanently and not pay their staff.
- Domino's - "We appreciate all your hard work and would like to offer every member of staff that works a shift a large 2 topping pizza to take home for your family during these difficult times." So this is an "upgrade" to the usual allowance of a personal pizza with one topping per day. Total upgrade value is £2. £2 per day to put yourself, your family and others at significant risk.
- Sherwin-Williams - Office workers have to work remotely. Production and research staff have to come onto site and work. Shifts have been set up so that interaction between employees is reduced. Staff are still being made to take full shifts even when their work is not business critical which puts them at risk needlessly. The company refuses to let people take paid leave and refuses to use the government's 80% of pay scheme. Instead employees have to take unpaid leave or use up their holiday to isolate themselves. No arrangements have been made for people with at-risk people at home. They have to come to work, use up their holiday or go without pay. It seems like the company is using the threat of no pay to force people to come to work even when their work is not business critical or related to key sectors. This is putting people in danger so that the company can beat its competitors while they take the safer route of shutting down.
- JJ FOOD SERVICE - None, all staff are still working, deliver drivers and warehouse staff are understandable. office staff still expected to work. no protection given.
- Domino's Pizza UK (Franchises and Corporate) - Has positioned itself as an 'Essential business' as a food delivery service. Claims to have put procedures in place to allow social distancing within stores however these are impractical at best and impossible in most stores. Drivers are supposedly required to wash their hands after each delivery but the new suggested store setup does not allow for this. Many workers will be coming to work despite being symptomatic as SSP would not cover bills. No word on use of furloughs for staff. If staff are unhappy with working in conditions they're being given unpaid leave - not even being allowed holiday approved.
- Sports Direct - Generally poor; profiteering by increasing prices (despite appearing to be for the greater good)
- Wetherspoons - Generally execrable
- Johnstone's decorating centres - Stores now closed to public but still open for trade accounts to be able to collect orders from store or have them delivered.
- Nails inc - The same as Wetherspoons. Cut staff hours down to half what they are contracted due to being quiet, then when the department stores were closed they temporarily laid off all staff without any pay until boris announced the grant which they even had the cheek to debate about taking.
- Amazon - Lack of distancing, hand sanitiser, disinfecting communal equipment/ areas and lack of PPE.
- Estée Lauder Companies - Not renewing staff contracts leaving affected employees unemployed with less than 2 weeks notice
- Stena Line - Removed sick pay and instructed staff to claim SSP.
- N20 - Offering more work on minimum wage for a job that pays £12 pH directly
- Liberty Living UK / Unite - Forcing employees to work even if not nominated as Key Workers. Student accommodation is not one of the protected professions but they still want staff in a high risk environment.
- HHB solicitors - Hours cut and demand employees turn up for work still even though not an essential service.
- JD Sports Fashion - All the company apart from purchase ledger are working from home or closed due to coronavirus. Purchase ledger are being kept in the office as according to management we are not equipped to work from home despite no efforts being made to do so. We are not sat two meters apart and I feel this is unfair when the rest of this large company are safe in there own homes.
- Vodafone - Sent all office staff home but made retail stay with ZERO help or cleaning supplies
- GCI/Nasstar - Continueing with a plan to make a third of the company redundant, including 100% of all 1st line support staff from the origonal Nasstar company that GCI have taken over.
Staff are being given the option to work from home. Those who choose to come into the office are under strict hygene regulations. Hand sanitiser has been provided. Hand washing facilities are avalible. Requireing people to work 2 meters or more apart. No more than 1 person allowed in the kitchens at any one time. 14 day self-isolation on full pay but if you are able to work (remotely) while isolated, you are required to.
- Euro Car Parts - Asking employees with sheilding health conditions to work and if they do not comply, refusing to pay their wages
- Monica Vinader - Closed all stores sending a generic email at 9pm to all retail staff telling them they had until 12pm the next day to accept to be paid £29 for 5 days then nothing until further notice or if falling to replied would be made redundant.
- Haart Estate Agents - 300 Redundancies (don't appear to have asked for the government support to pay 80%)
- TH Baker - Forcing all employees to come into Head office (including staff from gyms and stores which are closed) today 25/03 so building is more full making social distancing hard. Several people went home with symptoms last week but have not allowed anyone else to quarantine. Instead they put other employees in same area putting them at risk. Office staff could potentially work from home but company won't pay for the means to. Managers implying anyone who doesn't come to work won't get paid and won't have a job to come back to. Employees having to help with the cleaning so they're less at risk.
- Sky television - Sky engineers are still expected to enter customers homes. This is not only putting their staff at risk but also the customers. Sky have no information on the health risk of their customers who could be in the vulnerable category. Shame on sky for not having a duty of care for their staff or customers.
- Premier Housewares - Not letting office-based employees work from home even if they do jobs that can EASILY be done from home, even AFTER the government "lockdown" has begun and they say all jobs that can be done from home should.
- Foxtons - Not strictly employee related. Just low morals. I am a small landlord who has lost all my self employed income in the arts due to this pandemic. The only income I have is from my rental property. Foxtons are charging an extra £70 per month to take their commission monthly rather than in one go at the anniversary next week, which would see me with no income for a month and a half and therefore unable to pay the mortgage on the rental property or buy food for myself. (I am saving any ‘mortgage holiday’ in case my tenant needs the help). Already unable to pay my own bills, they have chosen to make money from my misfortune.
- Deloitte - Offices to close until further notice, this period will be unpaid for those unable to work from home - this was not offered as an option. Prior communications indicated one week of pay during this period, which has since bern reneged.
- Miller & Carter - Better explained update to previous mention, and prior to pub/restaurant closure: Lack of concern for their employees and patrons H&S surrounding government advice on self-isolation after travelling from abroad.
Gov policy up to March 7th advised anyone who had been to northern regions in Italy to only self-isolate for 14 days if they showed symptoms. This policy was updated on March 8th so that anyone who had been in those regions in the last 2 weeks should self-isolate for 14 days regardless of symptoms.
Staff who returned from holidays on Feb 29th were not advised to self-isolate for the remaining 7 days by head office. It was deemed not a problem as they had already been working since returning and had no symptoms; even though the virus can survive for 14 days and they would then be consistently putting new customers at risk.
- Co-op - No clarification re safe operating. No gloves or sanitiser provided. Colleagues had to provide this for one another. Still accepting cash. Social distancing ignored until lockdown. No sick pay.
- Sticks & Sushi - Company wide lay offs. Mass uncertainty for remaining staff.
- Lloyds bank(back offices) - Crowded offices. No social distancing being taken. Told would be given laptops - still no sign of them. High risk still at work. Offices not had deep clean.
- NEXT DISTRIBUTION - Warehouse still fully operational as, like their stores, they've classed it as essential. Employees as given the option to go home unpaid or come in and mix with over 1000 people. For most the former isn't an option as they have bills to pay. The union, Usdaw, is doing nothing to help.
- The University of the West of England - Assured staff will be paid, sent all none crictial staff home. Now has just fired all its contractors and wont be renewing any contracts. So the university has just secretly got rid of a lot of staff
- Auxillis - Forced employees to continue working. "Business as usual" . It's a call centre providing hire cars to accidents. Only implemented social distancing since the government forced their hand on Monday.
- Adidas - Originally announced all stores would remain open as it was more courageous to stay open than to close. Then decided to close after they saw Nike were closing and Adidas started to receive backlash. They informed employees they would be paid for the time the store was closed with no other rules mentioned. The following week they started forcing employees to do online training and that if anyone fails to complete the training then they would not be paid and would be disciplined at work once the company re opens.
- Travelodge - Turned all homeless guests out of hotels leaving them with nowhere to stay
- Orchard Computer Services, Yate - Approximately 20 employees were stuck in the office in Yate together, at the demand of their Managing Director, posing high risk to their colleagues, and their family and loved ones.
Even when forced to change to Working from Home, Orchard's contingency plan wasn't followed, and has resulted in several of their staff being unable to, or refusing to follow working from home proceedure. Communication between employees on the support desk has also broken down, hampering customer service.
No expenses permitted to employees except for phone bills (not necessarily easy to track in mobile contracts).
- Coop Funeral Services and Spotify - Sorry slightly off you remit but perhaps you could create a parallel sheet. - Spotify have play 3 Coop Funeral Service ads in the last 90 mins
- Builders Merchant Federation (BMF) - ""Builders merchants are a vital part of the construction supply chain. It is important that they continue to support the industry to operate on sites, especially where it is undertaking essential work, and also to continue to provide the link between product manufacturers and the firms and tradespeople that use and install the products they make.""
- Edinburgh University - Kept academic library open until Monday 23rd March
- Lords Builders Merchants - "Colleagues will need to be reminded that it is only through staying open we have a chance of beating the financial effect of the virus."
- Waterstones - No sanitiser, gloves or masks provided to staff throughout the crisis, stores kept open until the last possible moment (closed stores at the end of Monday 23rd) despite most customers being OAPs and thus very vulnerable to COVID-19, have communicated poorly with staff until very recently, and have begrudgingly furloughed workers but not yet clarified whether they will be receiving 80% or 100% of their salaries under £2500
- Le Boat - They have told employees that unless they work for 3months unpaid, they will be laid off.
- Budgens - No support for staff (no gloves, masks or anti-bacterials). No defined social distancing measures in store, price gouging of basic necessities. Also their version of Slush Puppie providers are demanding service technicians install slush machines and telling everyone to carry on as normal.
- The Range - Originally refused sick pay unless you could prove you had the virus, provided no ppe to staff, suggested people bring their kids to work. Prices of soap, loo roll etc were doubled or more. Lots more details on this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/closetherange1
- Vodafone UK - Told hand sanitizer would be supplied... Never arrived. Told multiple times that we wouldn't close as we are an essential service then lied saying Vodafone stores throughout Europe were open during lockdown. Was told we need to show all 3 symptoms before we was allowed to self icesolate. Implemented social distancing days after the PM advised it.
- EE - My brother was isolating with COVID19 symptoms, called him after 4 days to ask when he'd be back in work. Employees in non-critical roles such as sales are not allowed to work from home and are instead working as normal in crowded call centers with shared equipment and limited breaks for handwashing.
- Argos Online - Classing warehousing staff as critical workers and providing them with letters to show to police despite the company selling nothing that could be considered critical.
- Electric Radiators Direct - Fired some staff before the 80% furlough plan, due to no fault of employees own. Could have changed to furlough status and didn't.
- Tesco - Initially I was contacted and told over the phone I had 10 weeks off with pay due to having Asthma and being hospitalized and needing to use steroids (for Asthma) in the past. Yesterday I was contacted over the phone saying that is no longer happening as the guidelines have changed and I need to return back to work.
- BSW Sawmills - Very poor, only 1 week of sick pay then SSP. No hand sanitizer and little in the way of disinfectant wipes for equipment. Say they are an essential business as they supply wood for making pallets. Still carrying on business as usual with nearly 200 members on staff on site and no social distancing possible at most workstations.
- H&K Distribution - CEO tells employees that the company is critical and essential, everyone has to work. Company only supplies spare parts and machines to McDonald's, KFC, Burger King.
- De Vere Hotels - Have called their workers 'key workers' as they are essential to the running of the hotels...that are all shut down.
They have been told it's business as usual for them and the board are happy for them to work as per usual. No plan of action has been shared with staff or put into place.
Desks/staff are not 2 metres apart and they have to clean their own offices so nothing has been professionally disinfected or cleaned.
- BT - No option for call centre workers to work from home even though a communications company should be able to easily do this
- Qioptiq - No communication until global corporate parent company issued work from home order for employees who can do so. This was then overruled locally within the UK several days later to be 'dependent on line managers permission'. Operations director will only allow staff to work 2 weeks from home before coming back in, even if entire role can be done remote. Some managers will not give any flexibility for those with caring responsibilities (one was outright told their self employed partner should take time off to look after children, instead of them working from home, and one staff living with elderly relative with chronic lung condition was only allowed to WFH when he had to self isolate due to symptoms). Essentially managers don't trust their staff to do their job properly if they're not in the office, putting people at risk.