BrewDog pay cuts and Post Office scandal a reminder companies are not your friend - Alexander Brown

The rise of the internet has given businesses, companies and conglomerates a way to pretend they’re normal people

It has inspired gambling companies to post jokes and memes like human beings, rather than the parasites on our high streets that they are. It sees fast food companies replying to each other on Twitter, engaging in banter in the hope someone sees their dead chat and craves saturated fats.

Social media has given companies, which exist to sell us things, a way of dressing up as our friends, sharing topical takes or pretend allyship as they rifle through our pockets.

Nowhere is this clearer than with BrewDog, a company so one of the boys they don’t sell shares, but Equity for Punks, because there are few acts of protest more powerful than corporate investment.

Brewdog has abandoned the real living wage for its employees.

As well as beer, BrewDog was selling a lifestyle. You aren’t just buying a drink, you’re joining the craft beer crew and you’re part of a really cool gang.

It is this hypocritical nonsense that saw them have posters protesting the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar while selling their beer in the country. Who said activism can’t be profitable?

The problem is never what they say, however irritating, but what they do. It’s always what they do, which in BrewDog’s case is this time giving workers a real terms pay cut, abandoning the real living wage because it’s punk to slash incomes.

The company's owner, James Watt, insisted it was a difficult time because of the cost-of-living crisis, and to my mind essentially those costs would be best absorbed by his staff.

He said in a statement on social media: “With the real living wage increasing by an additional 10 per cent in April 2024, we could not implement this on top of all the other amazing things we do for our people whilst still offering fantastic value for our customers at a time where they have less disposable income to spend.”

Mr Watt replied to seemingly every news story post about the cut on social media with a copy and paste on why it was actually the sign of a good employer.

This all comes in the context of BrewDog welcoming 16.7 million customers last year, being the UK’s second most loved beer brand, and selling 4.2 cans in shops every second. If you can’t expand this widely and make a profit, slow down. Lives come before margins.

It speaks to the fundamental problem with the concept of trickle down economics. Businesses broadly have and always will put themselves first. Companies are not your friend and never have been. Bosses do not have the interests of the worker at heart. The living wage is what experts say people need, and companies still choose not to pay it.

Earlier this year, it was revealed 200 companies were collectively fined £7 million for failing to pay the legal minimum wage. Edinburgh Leisure separately announced this week its venues were withdrawing from the Real Living Wage scheme. Companies are deciding not to pay people enough to live.

The Post Office will understandably garner most of the headlines, but lots of companies are treating staff terribly, legally, and must not get away with it.