Liverpool have confirmed that they have reversed their decision to put non-playing members of staff on furlough leave.
Liverpool Reverse Furlough Leave Decision
Backlash
The club have faced huge waves of criticism in the last few days for taking part of the government’s furlough scheme in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was set up to allow smaller businesses to keep ahold of their staff while having them on leave, and the government would pay 80% of the wages.
Liverpool said that they would top of the missing 20% of all staff members that were put on furlough leave. However, it angered many that a business such as a Premier League team were keen to take advantage of the scheme; particularly given the profits that Liverpool have made in the last year owing to their European success.
However, club CEO Peter Moore has released another statement saying that he felt “we came to the wrong conclusion” and instead insisted that the club will find alternative ways to operate.
The statement read: “We believe we came to the wrong conclusion last week to announce that we intended to apply to the Coronavirus Retention Scheme and furlough staff due to the suspension of the Premier League football calendar, and are truly sorry for that.
“Our intentions were, and still are, to ensure the entire workforce is given as much protection as possible from redundancy and/or loss of earnings during this unprecedented period.”
Moore continued: “In the spirit of transparency, we must also be clear, despite the fact we were in a healthy position prior to this crisis, our revenues have been shut off yet our outgoings remain. And like almost every sector of society, there is great uncertainty and concern over our present and future.
Like any responsible employer concerned for its workers in the current situation, the club continues to prepare for a range of different scenarios, around when football can return to operating as it did before the pandemic. These scenarios range from best case to worst and everything in between.”
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