Billionaire Tilman Fertitta says he laid off 45,000 employees quickly as a ‘favor’

[Charlemagne]

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta says he laid off 45,000 employees quickly as a ‘favor’

By LAUREN THEISEN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

APR 13, 2020 | 12:03 AM

Billionaire restaurant owner Tilman Fertitta has laid off 45,000 workers in the aftermath of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But according to him, he did the employees a favor by cutting them loose sooner rather than later.

"You know, I went through the '87 crisis, the 2000, the 2008," Fertitta said Saturday in a Fox News interview. "You’re doing the people a favor if you get them furloughed first, because you have them first to the unemployment line after the severance that you give them. It’s a trick that I’ve learned many years ago."

Fertitta, who owns the Houston Rockets in addition to chain restaurants like Rainforest Cafe and Morton’s Steakhouse and many other properties, has an estimated net worth of nearly $5 billion. For the 45,000 of his workers let go, they now have to contend with an unemployment system that has been absolutely overwhelmed across the country by the sheer amount of new applications.

Whether they preferred getting a jump on their battle with the broken system to perhaps getting an extra paycheck or two before being laid off is unclear.

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-tilman-fertitta-says-he-laid-off-employees-quickly-as-a-favor-20200413-ygkfimiauzfb5omqf7hwckl2fy-story.html

 

[Darts]

Presumably, the revenue from his business(es) is zero or close to zero.

 

[superstar_88]

why the quotes?

 

[out4fun]

Currently, I’m running a zero revenue business that was ordered to close and am yet to lay anyone off or miss payroll. I can’t do it forever, but I don’t see the favour in being first in cutting people loose.

 

[ActionJ]

The rich do not become rich by being nice.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

He is going into hibernation so he can come back when the crisis is over. When things get better he will know where to find experienced people but the slackers will be jettisoned.

 

[Malibuk]

There are many people at companies deemed to be essential services, who would like to be laid off.
Some where I work asked for a layoff.
Some were granted, some denied.


Paid to quit? Backlash builds against unemployment benefits on ‘steroids’

An additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits has started going out as part of the coronavirus relief bill passed in March -- but the new payments, combined with state unemployment benefits, already are causing concern that some workers could be in a position to actually make more money by leaving their jobs.
The average state already gives out $463 per week in unemployment benefits. When combined with the new $600 per week, that works out to $1,063 per week – the equivalent of more than $26 an hour, or $55,000 a year.
That angers some essential workers on the front lines on the crisis.
“I can tell you as a worker who barely makes over minimum wage, at $12 an hour, the whole thing is complete BS,” Otis Mitchell Jr., who works in West Virginia transporting hospital patients to get medical tests, told Fox News.
Mitchell Jr. added that he has unemployed friends who already are getting the extra $600, and that “I prefer to work, but sadly I’d make more staying home.”