Statement re Press Comment

Wetherspoon (JD) PLC

29 December 2023

 

Correction Regarding Independent Article - 28 December 2023

An article in the Independent newspaper, of 28 December 2023, was headlined "Brexit-backing boss to be knighted in New Year Honours".

The article contained a number of inaccurate and misleading statements relating to Wetherspoon's and its chairman, Mr Tim Martin's responses to the closure of pubs in March 2020, as a result of the Covid -19 pandemic. The article said:

"But he [Mr Martin] has also sparked controversy, including by suggesting his 40,000 staff should go to work at Tesco amid uncertainty over their futures due to the coronavirus pandemic"

"In the early days of Covid-19, Mr Martin indicated the company would not continue to pay employees who were not now working after pubs in the UK were closed to stop the spread of the virus"

The statements are incorrect.

At no time did Mr Martin tell employees that Wetherspoon would not continue to pay them during the initial Covid-19 lock down. 

All employees were paid in the usual way, on the usual payment date of Friday 27 March 2020 for work done up to 22/23 March 2020. 

Following the closure of pubs on Friday 20 March 2020, the company sent an email to all employees on Wednesday 25 March 2020 confirming that furlough payments would begin on Friday 3 April 2020 and would continue weekly thereafter (for weekly paid staff), and monthly on 27th of every month for salaried employees. 

All staff were paid weekly / monthly throughout the pandemic - not one payment to employees was missed or delayed.

Mr Martin did not suggest that employees "should go to work at Tesco". 

This is a distortion of what was actually said in a video issued to staff on 23 March 2020. 

What Mr Martin said to staff in the video was as follows:

"If you're offered a job in a supermarket, many of you will want to do that, if you think it's a good idea to do it, I can completely understand it."

Immediate corrections are being sought from the Independent.

It is very surprising that the Independent published a number of stories during the pandemic itself, which contained the same misleading statements. 

The company wrote to the Independent on 4 occasions at the time pointing this out to them, and successfully requested corrections.

The resulting corrections from 2020 are summarised below, as set out in the "Does Truth Matter?" version of the Wetherspoon News magazine, published in 2021, which highlighted similar inaccurate media reporting of Wetherspoon's response to the pandemic - and the many apologies and corrections Wetherspoon secured as a result.

Extract from Wetherspoon News "Does Truth Matter?" Edition

"Three articles by the Independent (dated 30 April, 11 June and 10 July) and one Indy 100 article dated 24 June have been amended following complaints from JD Wetherspoon:

All four articles were amended to clarify that at no point did Mr Martin tell employees that Wetherspoon would not continue to pay them.

The publications accepted the fact that all staff were paid by the company up until the point pubs closed, following which all staff received furlough pay.

In addition, all four articles were amended to clarify that Mr Martin did not direct staff that they "should work at Tesco instead". The publications acknowledged that their reporting on this point was inaccurate and that Mr Martin had, in fact, expressed that he 'understood' if employees were offered a job in a supermarket and wished to take it up"

The full version of "Does Truth Matter?" can be downloaded from the Wetherspoon website here.

https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said:

"This is a very unusual set of circumstances. The Independent newspaper has repeated, almost exactly, false allegations that it previously retracted. The public, and the Independent's readers, expect better from a national newspaper."

Enquiries:

Nigel Connor                 Legal Director                           07876 232529

Eddie Gershon              Company Spokesman               07956 392234

Please send any questions by email to [e-mail]

Notes to editors

1.     J D Wetherspoon owns and operates pubs throughout the UK. The Company aims to provide customers with good-quality food and drink, served by well-trained and friendly staff, at reasonable prices. The pubs are individually designed, and the Company aims to maintain them in excellent condition.

2.     Visit our website:  www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

 

END