COVID-19 – who’s been good/bad?
At the momen, pretty much the whole world has stopped and is shutdown. During this who pandemic, we have seen the good side of people and businesses, and the bad side of some people. Some businesses are “doing the right thing”, some celebs donating money but then some businesses are not really showing they care for their employees and some celebs sing a cringe-worthy song/performance.
The list below is far from complete, its just what I have seen generally (and made a note of it) without looking lots into it. Stay safe everyone; stay at home.
Good List
Greggs – will pay staff who need to self-isolate
Home Bargains – £30m fund to help staff who need to self-isolate
Manchester United – all match day staff keeping jobs. Also, with Man City have donated £100,000 to help food banks in Manchester. Also donated supplies to Salford Royal Hospital and donated food to charities. Also individually some players have done their bit. Rashford helped raise £20m, De Gea donated €300k
Joe Wicks – doing daily P.E. lessons for children. And any money made from videos will go to NHS. Couple days ago, this was about £80,000
David Walliams – free audio books
Carol Vorderman – free maths lessons
Jamie Oliver – quickly filming and planning a new programme Jamie “Keep Cooking and Carry On” to give people help with cooking with few ingredients. First week he filmed in studio, then he started filming with iPhone at his own home
Chris Hemsworth – free access to his fitness app for 6 weeks (virtual workouts)
Marks and Spencer – 15% bonus, sneeze guards, face shields for staff
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively – donated $1m to food banks and $400,000 to hospitals
Robert Lewandowski and wife Anna donated €1 million Euros
Rihanna and Jay-Z’s foundations together donated $2m to COVID-19 relief efforts in New York and LA.
Ed Sheeran – will pay wages of workers at his London Restaurant.
David De Gea – anonymously donated €300,000 – but someone revealed info
Juventus – players have frozen their pay for 4 months
Barcelona – players taking 70% paycut
Brighton FC CEO and manager taking voluntary pay cut for 3 months
Eddie Howe, manager of Bournemouth, taking a voluntary pay cut. Assistant, chief exec and tech director also taking pay cut.
Bad List
Wetherspoons – properly don’t need to explain
Sports Direct – Mike Ashley claimed Sports Direct was essential business – because people would need sporting equipment. He has since apologised and said response was “ill-judged and poorly timed”.
Britannia Hotel – terminated employment of many employees and also left them without somewhere to live. They have since blamed “admin error”. Sure!
Manchester City – apparently casual staff not sure if they will be paid. May have been sorted now??
Wilko – plan to reduce its sickness pay
Richard Branson – wants a government bailout! He’s refused to pay staff even though he is worth £4bn. Also, he pays no tax (since primary residence is his private island). Also Virgin Healthcare have paid no corporation tax
Some football clubs and players may not be doing there bit BUT I reckon they will announce something soon. But it doesn’t look good when Spurs have reduced wage by 20% of non-football staff but no word yet about footballers pays.
Also, since their owner is Mike Ashley, its no surprise that Newcastle FC non-playing staff are on temporary leave – they will be paid until end of April (when apparently will be reviewed).