Club to furlough a proportion of work force

Given our good home attendances (the second highest in League Two) and the crowdfunding scheme to help pay the bills this announcement is a surprise and not many League Two clubs have taken up the furlough option just yet.
It may be a case of our wage bill being higher than most other League Two clubs.
Nice to see the club top up to complete the full wage.

It might be a good idea to put 2020/2021 season tickets on sale to ease the financial strain.

It would have been good PR for the Club if they announced at the same time that some of or all of the top earners had agreed to take a reduction in pay even if it was just a deferral of pay until things are back to something like normality.

So many big companies (who are far bigger and hold far more capital than Argyle) are seeing the 80% support figure and just shirking the missing 20% and forcing staff to accept the cut, not Argyle.

HC Green":1yhyu0xz said:

It would have been good PR for the Club if they announced at the same time that some of or all of the top earners had agreed to take a reduction in pay even if it was just a deferral of pay until things are back to something like normality.

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The board leading by example compared to other clubs, but a gesture from some of the players would be appreciated, as we are supposed to be 'All In This Together'

Argyleloyal87":1s5yyhty said:

Players will be included but the club will pay the extra 20% so staff will get full 100% wages


https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/2020/april/club-statement/

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The statement doesn't mention the 20% top up (which could be a big pay cut for some players) but says the club will ensure the players receive their full salaries.
So it looks like whatever a player is short of after receiving the 80% from the Government the club will make up the difference, although it could be how the statement was worded.

So, players will not return to training before July at the earliest then?

Or are they saying that wages will be covered until at least July 1st?

I wasn't particularly surprised by the announcement. Whilst I understand that the club is more financial stable than many, I think that the vast majority of businesses will be taking advantage of the scheme if they've got little in the way of income and don't want to lose personnel or leave them in the lurch.

Doesn't say which players either, so could be those in the youth team or the young professionals who have been out on loan at National League South clubs. Or they could be some of the more established players who have children and also partners in either key working positions or who have jobs that are carrying on with work done from home. Means that the footballer within the relationship can look after the kids whilst their partner carries on working.

M

Why wouldn't Argyle - or any other business - furlough as many staff as possible to get a proportion of the staff costs covered by the government?

There is a huge difference between Argyle saying they will continue to pay all staff in full and, say, Spurs saying they will continue to pay the players in full but not not up the earning of much lower paid staff. That stinks.

The question of pay cuts for players, management and other staff is another question and is no doubt a key factor in current discussions between the FA, Premier League, Football League, PFA and their counterparts in other countries and will depend on what happens re cancelling/extending the season.

In particular, there is a massive issue with contracts expiring in June and it seeming unlikely the current season could restart by then, never mind finish. Resolving that will be a battle of the various self-interests and is likely to get messy.

What Argyle appear to have said is that they will pay in full until at least July, which gives rise to two key observations:

- If restrictions are lifted, staff can be recalled from furlough at 24 hours notice so this is not an admission that we definitely won't be playing again by then; and

- If restrictions continue beyond the end of July, salaries may have to be cut but will be reviewed nearer the time but remember many players may (depending on the above) be out of contract by then

I am not sure that the Club have been given the full credit for what they have done in using the Government support, through the Corona Virus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to furlough a proportion of its workforce, including playing staff. The key point is that they have also committed to top up the CJRS funding to ensure that all furloughed staff will continue to receive their full salaries until the end of June , at the earliest.

That means that all the Club’s employees (including players and management) will receive the full salaries for the next three months, at least. Not many companies, including leading FTSE companies, are doing that at this time.

This gesture by the Club to all its employees, at this most challenging of times, is remarkable and to my knowledge unmatched by many other local companies, let alone some PL and EFL Clubs. Yet another reason to be very proud of our Club and a clear demonstration of its vision and values in operation.

Proud to be a Pilgrim!!
A further example of Simon, Jane and PAFC earning our RESPECT.