"The support they have put on the table is nowhere near enough"

Tuesday 24 March 2020

A local electrical company is urging the government to make “bold decisions” on immediate lockdown for all sectors after pressing pause on their work over virus safety concerns.

Alfie and Debbie Cornish of A Cornish Electrical Ltd. said the decision had not been taken lightly, but was based on the safety of their employees and customers.

While the company will still be available to help out existing customers in case of an emergency, the couple decided to “press the pause button” and sent all their employees home.

They have committed to pay their employees “as long as they can”, but have reminded them they should follow the rules of social distancing.

“We have told our staff, ‘We pay you, do not drive out in our vans, don’t go out.' This is not a holiday,” Mrs Cornish said.

 

 

 

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Today we have made the decision to press the pause button and our employees have been sent home. We will still offer an emergency call out service for our existing customers should they find themselves without electrics, lighting and hot water. This is a very hard decision to make and one which would have been made a lot easier had the @governmentofjersey made it for us. We believe this is the right thing to do for Jersey as a community and remain hopeful that very soon the right thing will be done for all local businesses and self-employed individuals.

A post shared by A Cornish Electrical (@acornishelectrical) onMar 23, 2020 at 5:34am PDT

Mr and Mrs Cornish said they felt it was irresponsible to continue sending their employees into customers’ homes or onto building sites “where it is often difficult to practice social distancing”.

“Our feeling is that the current lack of testing and the delayed results are putting our employees and customers at risk,” Mrs Cornish said.

“If one member of staff goes into a home and is infected, they could take it to three more homes in the same day. We have no way of protecting them and our customers.

“As a business we are happy to fund as long as we can. It’s not an endless pot, but the safety of our employees comes before everything else. We could keep trading but it’s not the right thing to do.”

Mrs Cornish hopes the company’s move will help prevent the spread of covid-19 in the island as well as those in the frontline of the fight against it by keeping more people on the streets.  

She also hopes other traders will follow suit but with the “extremely lacking” support the government has put forward, she says many won’t be able to. 

“The support they have put on the table is nowhere near enough,” Mrs Cornish said. “We pay our apprentices more. Paying £200 a week per employee - that’s not a living wage.

 

 

 

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@governmentofjersey “You Have The Power” to help everyone stay at home #supportlocalemployers #communitycounts #allinittogether #putpeoplebeforeprofit

A post shared by A Cornish Electrical (@acornishelectrical) onMar 22, 2020 at 1:41pm PDT

For Mrs Cornish, the government needs to “step up” before it’s too late. 

“To flatten the curve as they say, they need to offer something along the lines of what the UK is doing - 80% of salary something like that for the next three to six months for small businesses and self-employed.

“It buys the time, it buys the hospital some time. In six months, you can reduce that. Everyone wants to go back to work.”

After 15 years of trading, Mrs Cornish says A Cornish Electrical Ltd and other traders “do not want to close the doors and never trade again and take handouts”.

“We have been trading for 15 years, we pay our taxes. This is a rainy day and we are looking for some help. 

“It’s horrible to be an employer you want to keep paying your employees, but you also do not want to put your staff at risk.

“I know we are not alone. The government needs to start to listen. Other building contractors, other traders want to do the same but they are holding out for government support. We all want to come to the other side but there is a long way to go."

Pictured: Mrs Cornish would like the Government of Jersey to make “bold decisions” around immediate lockdown for all sectors.

Mrs Cornish would also like the Government of Jersey to make “bold decisions” around immediate lockdown for all sectors, which they could relax in a couple of weeks “once there is more insight surrounding testing figures and a true feel for how Jersey is coping”.

“This could allow some businesses who are unable to work from home to return to the field and continue to trade without masses of other people mixing amongst them,” she explained. “There is no reason this could not be done and monitored on a permit basis.”

“All traders want to self-isolate and help. We all want to stop and get control of it, manage it as an island like we should be doing.”

For Mrs Cornish, the Government is lacking “leadership and direction” in the current situation. 

“I know people are working hard behind the scenes and I understand this is totally unprecedented, but companies are nervous they cannot afford to not work.

“I know this is unprecedented, but this is what they are meant to do, this is what they are elected for.

“It’s quite sad that we have had to make this decision. It would have been a lot easier if it had been a blanket decision, if it had been a decision by the government.”