The rise and fall of BrewDog: how the anarchic brewery went from progressive to problematic
Oh dear, BrewDog.
A case of: “How could it possibly get any worse?” And then it did.
In a letter to staff, Brewdog Bars CEO James Brown said all new workers would now be paid £11.44 per hour nationwide – the national living wage. That means bar staff outside London will see their pay go up by around 5 per cent. Doesn’t sound so bad? It also means staff in London will have their hourly pay frozen – a real-terms pay cut.
Apparently, a “unique bonus scheme” that includes a whole extra £1 an hour if they surpass customer service standards for that month and “pawternity” leave, offered by a BrewDog spokesperson after the news, couldn’t soften the blow. In a city coping with higher-than-average living costs and rents more than double the national average, staff were understandably fuming.
Brown said it was a “hard decision” they had to status after complaints of a working “”, facing criticism over its “hypocritical” stance on the 2022 World Cup (for much the same reasons) and one of its founders being accused of inappropriate behaviour, which he denies. Oh, and also the being pretty rank.
