Boycotting Byron

[Alty]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36910950

Can someone give me a reasoned argument as to why people would boycott Byron after this?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Because it's overpriced?

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Never liked his poems.

 

[markwwfc1992]

So let me get this straight.

Some people are protesting/boycotting against this company because workers whom were working illegally in the UK are being deported?

Shouldn't we be praising them?

 

[MJA]

Never heard of it

 

[smat]

I think I ate a Byron Burger about three years ago. It might have been Honest Burger though. I don't think a boycott would be very effective on my part, so, with respect, I won't spend any more time finding out about this news story.

Next.

 

[shane]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36910950

Can someone give me a reasoned argument as to why people would boycott Byron after this?

Presumably because they (allegedly) set up fake health and safety meetings as a trap to lure workers so they could get picked up easier.

 

[shane]

Because it's overpriced?

It is overpriced but the chilli burger is exceptional.

 

[MJA]

Presumably because they (allegedly) set up fake health and safety meetings as a trap to lure workers so they could get picked up easier.

If that's what happened, I assume they would have done whatever the police asked them to so as to try and limit any potential damage, on a legal level, to their business going forward

 

[TomPNE94]

Never heard of it

same

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

Byron is class

 

[shane]

If that's what happened, I assume they would have done whatever the police asked them to so as to try and limit any potential damage, on a legal level, to their business going forward

Its essentially entrapment.

I'm not saying I agree with the boycotting, as they are essentially complying with immigration laws and these workers were illegal. However, from a moral standpoint I can see why some would have a problem with it.

 

[MJA]

Its essentially entrapment.

I'm not saying I agree with the boycotting, as they are essentially complying with immigration laws and these workers were illegal. However, from a moral standpoint I can see why some would have a problem with it.

But providing the company have done whatever they may have done on the advice of the Home Office and/or police then I don't see how they can take the flak.

The bottom line is that these people were here illegally and were going to be removed one way or another. Surely it is better for the taxpayer for them to do it in the most cost effective way possible?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Its essentially entrapment.

I'm not saying I agree with the boycotting, as they are essentially complying with immigration laws and these workers were illegal. However, from a moral standpoint I can see why some would have a problem with it.

Thing is as well, they weren't complying with immigration laws for up to the last five years...

 

[mnb089mnb]

"The Home Office said Byron had done the correct "right to work" checks on recruits, but it was suspected the employees had provided false documents."

Biggest bit of news here is that the system doesn't work at all, does it? Can understand how people can work illegally for small businesses, but big ones like this? ... Hmmm bad..

 

[sl1k]

Unethical wanks in every sense.

They obviously turned a blind to these 'false documents' initially, but when they were caught sold everyone out to save their own skins.

 

[Alty]

Unethical wanks in every sense.

They obviously turned a blind to these 'false documents' initially, but when they were caught sold everyone out to save their own skins.

How is that "obvious"? It's possible, granted. But it'd be a hell of a risk for a company to take.

Separately on the entrapment point - they weren't being lured into committing a crime. Arrangements were simply made to get them all in the same place in order to save time and money and reduce the risk of absconding. Unless I'm missing something?

 

[Jockney]

Byron Burger paid those migrant workers barely minimum wage because it is technically legal and are happy to exploit migrant labour until it is technically illegal. This from a company that was bought for £100m only a few years ago. Of course you could say the same about most big companies, but it seems more practical to boycott those that are brazenly awful.

 

[Jockney]

How is that "obvious"? It's possible, granted. But it'd be a hell of a risk for a company to take.

Separately on the entrapment point - they weren't being lured into committing a crime. Arrangements were simply made to get them all in the same place in order to save time and money and reduce the risk of absconding. Unless I'm missing something?

So either there was enough evidence that BB had KNOWINGLY employed undocumented migrants and therefore HAD to comply with the authorities and sell-out their own employees or BB had been 'duped' by these workers and voluntarily colluded with the HO to fuck them royally.

Lovely company.

 

[Alty]

So either there was enough evidence that BB had KNOWINGLY employed undocumented migrants and therefore HAD to comply with the authorities and sell-out their own employees or BB had been 'duped' by these workers and voluntarily colluded with the HO to fuck them royally.

Lovely company.

If it's scenario 2 I fail to understand what the problem is...

 

[shane]

How is that "obvious"? It's possible, granted. But it'd be a hell of a risk for a company to take.

Separately on the entrapment point - they weren't being lured into committing a crime. Arrangements were simply made to get them all in the same place in order to save time and money and reduce the risk of absconding. Unless I'm missing something?

This is a company worth 100s of millions with 50 sites in London alone. Its not just some small chicken shop on Holloway Road. Admittedly, I don't know how easy it is to forge the relevant documents but I would imagine every illegal worker didn't produce perfect replicas of the real thing. I, and many others see it as Byron working the system until they got caught and then f*cking everyone out of it.

Saying that, I don't think the "innocent illegal workers" narrative plays all that well either. There was always a possibility of this happening when they forged the documents in the first place.

 

[Jockney]

If it's scenario 2 I fail to understand what the problem is...

Do you think legality is more important than morality? I think actively ruining the lives of employees who, for the benefit of your grossly inflated profit margin, have laboured loyally for fuck-all is kind of morally repugnant.

 

[Jockney]

This is a company worth 100s of millions with 50 sites in London alone. Its not just some small chicken shop on Holloway Road. Admittedly, I don't know how easy it is to forge the relevant documents but I would imagine every illegal worker didn't produce perfect replicas of the real thing. I, and many others see it as Byron working the system until they got caught and then f*cking everyone out of it.

Saying that, I don't think the "innocent illegal workers" narrative plays all that well either. There was always a possibility of this happening when they forged the documents in the first place.

Maybe it doesn't help in any legal sense, but I don't see why that is necessarily even an inverted commas narrative. Of course I and many others will have a great deal of sympathy and solidarity with people who have put a lot on the line just work a shitty restaurant job that barely provides

 

[Gladders]

Never heard of it

 

[mnb089mnb]

Never heard of it people live in places where there aren't an easy supply of illegal immigrants.

Location:Norfolk
Location:Staffordshire

 

[Alty]

Do you think legality is more important than morality? I think actively ruining the lives of employees who, for the benefit of your grossly inflated profit margin, have laboured loyally for fuck-all is kind of morally repugnant.

See Shane's point above. If you know you don't have the right to work in the UK and decide to do so anyway, I don't think you can complain about the employer you've hoodwinked (which is the assumption we're making) assisting the Home Office in returning you to your country of origin.

What do you think Byron should have done, out of interest? Given the workers a tip-off in order to say thank you for their loyal table waiting?

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Byron Burger is the Brewdog of meat patty purveying.

Little wonder that noted imagination vacuum and aesthetic myope Alty should leap to their defence, going so far, in fact, as to erect his own pop-up store for the staging of said strictly-limited guerilla defence performance event.

 

[shane]

Byron Burger is the Brewdog of meat patty purveying.

"WE HAVE SWORN OUR ALLEGIANCE. THERE IS NO TURNING BACK. WE ARE THE CHANGE. AND SO ARE YOU. WE ARE BREWDOG AND THIS IS THE CRAFT BEER REVOLUTION. SO HELP ME DOG."

I absolutely loathe Brewdog. But like annoying "friends" on facebook, I'd hate it if they weren't around to loathe.

 

[appletablepenny]

I think that the Brewdog comparison is quite apt, as I struggle to understand the sustainability of the whole craft beer/ microbrewery and the "gourmet" burger industries.

The portions in posh burger joints are too big also.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

Never been so happy to join the boycott. Assume this is something about transfer pricing? It usually is.