There has been a lot of hand wringing and words of concern expressed over the collapse of BHS.
Ever since the news that Duff & Phelps the administrator for the company had failed to find a buyer for the high street retail giant, those in high business office have thrown their tuppence worth in.
For his part former BHS owner Sir Philip Green says of course he is “saddened and disappointed ” about what has happened.
Over the last few days Simon Walker head of the Institute of Directors (IOD), summed up Sir Philip’s response as a “lamentable failure of behaviour,” that risks “deeply damaging” the British business world as a whole.
There were expressions too of relief that Sir Philip had not been able to extend his cavalier business approach elsewhere. Lord Myners former Marks and Spencer chairman now tasked with advising MP’s who will investigate Sir Philip’s running of BHS could only say “thank goodness” that Sir Philip had not taken over M&S.
All this is well and good, but in its own right it is frankly a lamentable response that will come as utterly no consolation to those 11,000 employees of BHS, 800 of them in Scotland, whose jobs are at risk and who now know the company has left behind a £571 million pensions black hole.
Lin Macmillan a former BHS employee who is now running an online petition is absolutely right in calling on Sir Philip to “express his regret in a more tangible way.” Her online campaign “Sell the yachts and pay the pensions” hits the nail on the head.
Sir Philip Green’s £100m super yacht aside, this is a man who along with other investors collected more than £580m in dividends, rent and interest payments during his ownership of BHS. Meanwhile fellow owner and the man Sir Philip sold the company to for £1 last year, former bankrupt Dominic Chappell, was paid millions in salaries and management fees.
The bottom line here is that there is money around, lots of it. Sir Philip himself potentially stands to gain tens of millions from BHS's collapse, and as Ms Macmillan justly points out, that money should be forthcoming to bail out the pension fund.
We have of course been here many times before with big finance bosses leaping to the front of the queue when things go wrong, usually as a result of their own making.
Think of those two other - now former - ‘knights,’ and chief executives, Fred Goodwin of the Royal Bank of Scotland and James Crosby of HBOS. The question is how many other knights are out there in the business and financial world with tarnished reputations?
Many of those whose running of such institutions and companies proves to be an unmitigated disaster not only walk away comparatively unscathed but very well off.
In most instances appealing to any sense of decency or doing the right thing by way of their employees falls on deaf ears as they happily pull the ladder up behind them. Those in business recklessly playing hard and fast with other people’s lives must be made to realise this is not acceptable. They must see that accountability exists, legal, political and in the court of public opinion. In the case of Sir Philip Green, actions not words are needed. It’s time to pay the pensions Sir Philip, or it might just be plain Mr Green.
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