UKC

PRESS RELEASE: Support the Sherpas

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 UKC/UKH Gear 07 Apr 2020

Please support our campaign to raise funds for Nepal staff whose income has been wiped out due to the Coronavirus pandemic.



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In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Aren't these sherpas your employees? Shouldn't you be looking out for them yourselves rather than starting a crowdfunding campaign?

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 tjdodd 12 Apr 2020
In reply to pancakeandchips:

Your comment is so idiotic I don't even know where to start with responding.

I am now annoyed with both your comment and also that it has forced me to write an angry response (which I hate doing).  All in not a great way to start the day.

Post edited at 09:32
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 tjdodd 12 Apr 2020
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

And in reply to the OP.  Good luck with the crowdfunding and I also hope JG (and all the other similar companies) gets through this ok.  I know that being a guiding/trekking/mountaineering company is tough at the best of times.  I have certainly benefited from and very much enjoyed your trips and courses over the years.

Good luck to a great bunch of people.

In reply to tjdodd:

Why shouldn't they show a bit of financial responsibility for the people without whom their business would be completely impossible? There is precedent for this situation - the season was effectively cancelled in 2015 as well. What did Jagged Globe and the rest of the industry do then to look after their workers? Genuinely asking because I don't pretend to be an expert in this field, I'm neither a mountain professional nor have I been on a guided expedition like the ones Jagged Globe offer. I'd just have presumed that given the inherently unstable nature of their business year to year that they would have some sort of contingencies in place. I don't think its controversial to suggest that businesses should make an effort to protect their workers through this crisis, particularly when said businesses wouldn't exist without those workers.

 tjdodd 12 Apr 2020
In reply to pancakeandchips:

My wording was a bit extreme so apologies for that.

In response, JG have an excellent reputation for supporting the locals that support their trips across the globe.  They ensure they pay fairly and have done a lot during difficult times in the past to support local workers.  I suspect this is not the case for a lot of similar operators.

Why do you think they will not be supporting their sherpas at the moment?  They have set up a crowdfunding campaign to support a charity that supports sherpas most in need.  They are looking to support the sherpa community in general and not just the relatively few individuals they work with.  I think this is commendable.

More broadly, I suspect JG will be struggling themselves over this period.  Companies like JG run on extremely tight margins, I believe in some cases even running trips at a loss.  I am sure their business model is based on subcontracting for the vast majority of their work (they will have very few of their own employees).  It would be unrealistic for them to build up a contingency to support what will be many hundreds of people across the world that support their trips.  These people will be self-employed or working for local companies.  Even major international companies are laying off or furloughing large numbers of their staff, let alone some small company like JG.

I do not work for JG but have used them in the past.

In reply to tjdodd:

Thanks for your measured reply. You're right that its commendable that they should be trying to support the sherpa community as a whole. The line that made me assume they weren't making provision for their own employees (or subcontractors if you prefer) was in the subtitle "to raise funds for Nepal staff whose income has been wiped out". Maybe its not the case and they are finding a way to support them.

As a self-employed subcontractor myself I'm pretty sensitive around the issue of the responsibility, or lack of, that businesses take for people who are employees in all but name. Although it sounds like Jagged Globe are a somewhat ethical employer I do stand by the assertion that since they rely on their subcontractors in the good times they have an obligation to be there for them in the bad. Maybe that would make their trips so expensive that it would be impossible to get business? Its obviously not a simple issue.


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