The Manchester United staff reeling from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s redundancy sledgehammer might want to contact their Scottish counterparts at Grangemouth, where the Ineos boss is also driving devastating change. They might at least squeeze a few quid more out of their terminator.
Scotland’s last remaining oil and gas refinery is set for a change of use next year when it is scheduled to become a fuel import terminal. This inevitably involves the shedding of staff. Up to 80 per cent of a workforce of 500 is expected to go. Union leaders raged, calling the move a “kick in the teeth for workers and the community”. To which the joint owners Petroineos (an amalgam of PetroChina and Ineos) responded with an improved package, but redundancies nonetheless.
Staff at Old Trafford were forewarned of the possibility of cuts when Ratcliffe sent in management consultants to comb the organisation for “efficiencies”. Sure enough the nuclear email dropped on Tuesday inviting all non-playing staff to consider “voluntary resignation”.
This follows the mandate for all staff to return to the office. Indeed the offer might be seen as encouragement for those reluctant to give up working from home, a protocol which ends on 1 June across all United sites in Manchester and London. Staff have until 5 June to accept a deal that will see them paid their annual bonus in full when they have completed their notice period.
This is Ratcliffe operating at warp speed to cut costs. This is how it works in the world of mergers and acquisitions, where companies like Ineos devour lesser beasts, pare them to the bone and sell on for profit.
Though in the case of United this does not appear to be the motive, you would not rule it out. Were results on the pitch to improve following the FA Cup success and the brand to increase further in value, United could easily attract another bid from a nation state or private equity monster.
Ratcliffe might be sincere in his love of United, but he is driven more by profit than affection for a football team. You can imagine the opprobrium that would come the way of the Glazers, arguably the most reviled owners in football, were they to wield the scalpel so mercilessly.
No saving is off limits, as those travelling to the FA Cup final last week discovered. As joyous as that day turned out, any staff attending did so without recourse to former privileges.
They were asked to contribute £20 a pop towards travel costs that previously came as a perk of the job – and this, imposed by the richest man in Britain, a Monaco tax exile worth an estimated £12bn.
Whilst Ratcliffe will argue his personal wealth is irrelevant, which in the context of football’s financial sustainability regulations it is, the optics aren’t great when a club that generated record revenues of £650m in the last accounts is engaged in a nickel-and-dimes ram-raid on the perks of ordinary staff.
I’m sure if Ratcliffe asked nicely, some of those banking upwards of £300,000 a week would have had a whip round to cover the costs. Then again, he might have charged the players too.
Ratcliffe is protected from criticism by the euphoric narrative surrounding his investment in the club and his objectives to restore United to the summit of the game. In that context the slashing of jobs to bring staffing levels below 1,000 and into line with the likes of other top clubs Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, hardly lands with supporters.
The fans are far more engaged with the fate of another review into the performance of the team and the consequences for coach Erik ten Hag. What looked a losing position before the victory against City at Wembley appears to have swung back in Ten Hag’s favour.
His stewardship of the day and his control of the script in the aftermath layered this week’s review with more positive sentiments.
Letters of support from fan groups making plain their desire to retain Ten Hag, backing from the dressing room and a lack of convincing alternatives suggests a stay of execution might be his reward.
However, being influenced by one win, however significant it might have felt, would constitute a betrayal of the core principles outlined by Ratcliffe when he took over. Namely, that decisions will be made on evidence assessed by experts, newly appointed to bring about transformational change.
Beating City in the manner they did was a considerable achievement, but the Premier League table paints a different picture, and it cannot be erased by Ten Hag’s smart manipulation of one good day. Thankfully for him, Ten Has hag far more heft than the administrative staff beneath him, many of whom will definitely not be back in the office next season.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/WuQSPe9
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