Undercover Boss, Poundworld.

ohreally

I'd rather see directors and shareholders defer their dividends and sort out the basics - rock bottom morale, address inadequate h&s provision, treat staff as valuable assets rather than disposables. The staff felt they had no voice and there was no one to listen - a grievance was allegedly submitted (in fear) to head office and subsequently ignored - engage with a trade union (usdaw) and work to improve the employees conditions.

ohreally

Googlewhacker wrote: »

Not surprised you didn't answer my question

Your question focuses on drawing a narrow answer - and one which from the employer perspective would be addressed by them paying a lower wage for the tax payer to prop up through tax credits.

dark_lady

Googlewhacker wrote: »

I agree with the latter two parts to a certain extent, their H&S is appalling and hopefully they will get it sorted but their margins are relevant because their business operates on low margins high turnover and low costs, wages being one of these.

What would you rather 3000 people on £6.19 an hour or 3300 on NMW? I would much rather it be the latter and if it was the former you have a narrow view, companies like Poundland are companies that will get this country out of the mire. Yes they need to improve their H&S, yes they need to look after the staff they have more but I have admiration for their success and no business will be perfect and if they have expanded to quickly then the issues highlighed are not surprising....just gotta hope they improve it very quickly.

But they are NOT on minimum wage when their pay is being docked because the till doesnt balance for instance. To take someone below minimum wage is illegal.
But we see more outrage on these boards when its benefit fraud thats being talked about dont we?!
Why should it be one rule for employers and a different rule for those at the lower end of the income spectrum. After all both of these things are illegal so why arent they treated with equal contempt.

ohreally

Lets not get into the realms of what ifs - discussion of what is , is one thing.

Anyway its getting late and i need to prepare.

bluenoseam

Incidentally, in a pound shop, how is it possible to have tills which don't balance if you don't put idiots on the tills, can't be that difficult to count out pound coins in change or am i expecting a bit much of someone on NMW (don't start the arguments about deductions) to be able to count properly?

There's no doubt that some of their standards are a bit off, but ultimately it's a low margin area & some of the comments here are right on the limit of being bitter about the company, it's a pound shop, no one is expecting them to be employer of the year but the way some people are banging on it's making them sound like the employers from hell!

RobertoMoir

bluenoseam wrote: »

Incidentally, in a pound shop, how is it possible to have tills which don't balance if you don't put idiots on the tills, can't be that difficult to count out pound coins in change or am i expecting a bit much of someone on NMW (don't start the arguments about deductions) to be able to count properly?

Did you watch the show? The "undercover" director had problems with his till and the problems seemed to be with inadequate training on how they wanted their tills managed.

There's no doubt that some of their standards are a bit off, but ultimately it's a low margin area & some of the comments here are right on the limit of being bitter about the company, it's a pound shop, no one is expecting them to be employer of the year but the way some people are banging on it's making them sound like the employers from hell!

Again, did you watch the show? There were some truly bad practices going on in some of the stores shown, and things like basic cleanliness in staff areas were simply non-existent. No excuse for that.

As for "employer of the year" - maybe not, but you don't need to have your staff fanned with palm fronds and fed peeled grapes by their own personal harem to be a good employer, just treat them all with respect and dignity. And that seemed to be lacking at poundworld. Even the scene with the big boss turning up and asking the "new trainee" to go make them a coffee seemed a bit cringeworthy to me. It seems entirely clear to me from that scene alone that the directors of that company seemed to think their employees were little more than servants.

greytroot

SCOYA wrote: »

The clocking on issue with the fingerprint (very MI5) he did say about it not being acceptable docking 2 hours pay for forgetting to clock in/out. Yet at the end - NOTHING was mentioned - I assume they think the viewer would have forgotten about that. Disgusting way to treat your staff.

Yip and thats why they have a big turnover od staff - used to be that one of the biggest assets a company had was their staff!

Reggie_Rebel

There was no mention of what happened when the till was over, but I doubt the staff member was given the extra

bevanuk

donnajunkie wrote: »

the employer useing the free labour is the only person who gains. nobody else gains and certainly not the taxpayer. it is actually costing the taxpayer more.

No, the employee gains they have something on their CV to say they worked for nothing. If they put the right spin on that and say they would rather do that than be out of work they have just gone 2 steps forward to getting a job in my eyes.

ses6jwg wrote: »

ERM PROBABLY BECAUSE THEY SPEND 8 HOURS EVERYDAY DOING MIND NUMBINGLY BORING TASKS SUCH AS PUSHING BOXES AROUND AND PUTTING COKE CANS ONTO SHELVES FOR £5.93 AN HOUR?!

That is their job, they have chosen to do it and accepted it at that hourly rate. There are plenty of people to fill their shoes in the current climate so they are going to say - like it or lump it.
It isn't a skilled or strenuois job counting in muliples of one and putting things on a shelf is it?

dark_lady wrote: »

Why should it be one rule for employers and a different rule for those at the lower end of the income spectrum. After all both of these things are illegal so why arent they treated with equal contempt.

It's a different thing. That's like saying why don't we treat assault and murder the same way.

Yes poundworld have a lot of work to do and I expect that will happen (part of the reason they agree to do the show is for publicity, their not stupid).

Staff should be rewarded on a personal basis - length of service being a key one. They should start on minimum wage, but as they take on more responsibility/become more efficiant - say after a year there should be an increase.

emmell

What puzzled me more than anything was the state off the 'staff' room. What's wrong with the staff keeping it clean and as for the mouldy bread on the floor, why doesn't someone pick it up, it's not rocket science.
The staff taking breaks at the front of the shop, this happens all the time now since the government brought in the no smoking rule. It's up to the employer to make sure staff don't loiter outside the front of the shop smoking, it looks terrible, but where do they go? outside the next shop in the street? Surely it would be better if they went to the back of the premises.
If the staff room looked like that, I'd hate to see the toilets.
ML.