An article, which first appeared on the Daily Mail website on August 20th, said that staff were considering legal action against the owner for unpaid bonuses. In June 2017 Charlton Athletic decided to give staff discretionary bonuses because the club covered operational losses with high income from player sales resulting in a profit of £1.4m ((EBITDA + £6m) during the 2016/17 season. In 2017/18 the operational losses grew and the player sales were much lower. This was mainly because of the ongoing sale of the club which caused our CEO to leave resulting in delayed player sales and delay in actions being taken to make the club more cost efficient. Last season the club lost £10m (EBITDA loss £5.5m) and as a consequence the decision was taken not to grant discretionary bonuses, all contractual bonuses are being paid. The ownership can confirm that to date no legal action has been taken against the club on the issue of discretionary staff bonuses. In the meantime the club investigated how this issue became national news in the UK and beyond, a significant blow to the reputation of the club and owner and to the ability of the owner to sell the club. On August 20th, before the decision not to pay a discretionary bonus was communicated to the employees, the article on the Daily Mail website appeared. After the club confirmed on August 22nd that no bonuses will be granted for last season but contractual bonuses would be paid, the owner received an unsigned letter from “the administrative staff at The Valley” – there was no mention of the employees at the training ground. This letter was received at 4.35pm and was Tweeted out by CARD at 5.53pm. Their communication made it appear as if all employees were involved, that the bonuses were an obligation and that consequently the club was failing to fulfil its contractual obligations to its employees. An employee or small group tried to use the external pressure from the media to get their discretionary bonus despite the huge reputational damage to the club. It is unclear if a majority of the employees at The Valley supported the external communication of this letter, although it was written in their name, since nobody signed this letter to the owner. Although CARD has been very keen that the club’s management should always be accurate, the requirement does not seem to apply to their own communication. The ownership believes the fans and the EFL deserve to know what really happened as the truth has been misrepresented. Another recent example of the relativity of “truth” for CARD is when they recently wrote they “were disgusted to hear that Roland Duchatelet, our billionaire owner, is no longer willing to pay for academy players to drink water or eat breakfast at the club’s training ground". The academy players still have access to water at all times, now they have refillable bottles rather than plastic water bottles. The ownership continues to invest £2.2m per year in the Academy, which is considerably more than the majority of League One clubs invest
So Murray told us that the sale would go through in February, now Roland blames for his failure to sell because of a newspaper article in AUGUST. Just when fans are looking at the upturn in the team under Bowjacko, Roland reminds us that he's a cvnt.
A terribly written statement that bloodies the nose of the club itself but lands a much bigger blow to CARD's credibility. I have no doubt that a certain individual and their personal friendship with one of the affected staff persuaded them to pursue this story despite having full knowledge that there was no avenue to pursue. It made a good headline, but the story lacked substance right from the start. It's a shame that the staff member who drove this has the spine of a slug and when the going has got tough hasn't stood up to be counted.
Massive own goal by CARD, whatever the rights of the staff's case. I can have a pretty good guess at who the staff source was As for CARD's idiocy - it smacks of 'you-know-who', to be honest. Certain people do need to be careful in terms of antagonising Duchatelet, he has far, far more money and clout than they do.
They are indeed. But I think CARD is finished to all intents and purposes, they have failed to remove him and the last two protests have been extremely silly. So to issue a statement like this attacking CARD is surprising, especially considering Roland's recent interview in which he said he was not bothered by them, since they did not know him. I assume it's because he is concerned about the forthcoming EFL inquiry, and wishes to put them off the scent of the damage he has done to the club. In this case CARD have done him a massive favour. According to Rick, the staff still believe they have a strong case, and have documentation. They are trying to sort it out internally before going to the law, so I'm having an open mind before jumping to conclusions.
On a serious note, Lee Bowyer has started to restore a semblance of a feel good factor around the club in recent weeks. Today’s reheated hysteria proves there are a few antagonisers about who will never let this club thrive, regardless of the owner.
The last owner who was the butt of protests was Michael Gliksten, so there is no basis in fact for the last statement.
"...a significant blow to the reputation of the club and owner and to the ability of the owner to sell the club." "An employee or small group tried to use the external pressure from the media to get their discretionary bonus despite the huge reputational damage to the club." Duchatelet getting touchy about the reputation of the Club Oh the irony...
I notice that the club are claiming the bonuses were discretionary. If that were the case this would have died a death in august - you can't seek legal action for a payment that gets paid at the discretion of the owner. I've heard little else since then, and assumed it was all being negotiated, and then whoosh, with the team soaring unexpectedly up the league, the Belgian launches another rant against the fans. He even claims Card are making the sale more difficult, when according to the club the price was agreed months back. The usual candidates here and ITTV have gone on the attack against Card, who barely exist at this stage of the game, and you have to wonder at the sense of using a statement that was probably engineered in Belgium to deliver a tirade against the fans. There has been one protest in well over a year, and the numbers weren't that great, so Card are hardly weilding much power these days - most fans are waiting for the owner to bugger off. You have to wonder at the timing. This issue went into limbo a while back. Could it be RD is priming his meeting with the EFL and trying to get a little undeserved credibility out there? If so, he should avoid phrases like 'damaging the clubs' reputation', unless he is describing his own actions.
When all said & done, I think the bonuses story will interest barely 200 Charlton fans ..all of them posting on forums. Everyone made up their minds about Duchatelet long ago [99.999% against, 5 on ITTV in favour]. Equally, everyone made up their minds about the motivations of the CARD rabble rouser long ago. What is sad is the way he plays simple minded folk. I see he is in full-on Len McCluskey mode now over on CARD Life, as if he really gives a sh1t about whether the staff get their bonuses. Its all to do with Angry Rick's Agenda, again.
I agree this is now an internet thing where only us forum inhabitants get upset about it generally. B ut say what you like about your friends on CL, the enemy is Duchatalet.
Not true - you should have seen how happy I was when we won at Southend and against Plymouth....oh....hold on....you only go to the games to get a programme #numpty
