Exclusive:Union hail Dejphon Chansiri exit as Sheffield Wednesday's unsung heroes prepare for new era
A new dawn awaits Sheffield Wednesday after the takeover of the club by US consortium Arise Capital Partners.
A union chief who represented exhausted Sheffield Wednesday employees at some of their lowest months last year has hailed the exit of failed chairman Dejphon Chansiri as the club looks to move forward towards a brighter future under its new owners.
Staff in a number of departments at Hillsborough went months without timely payment of their salaries under the erstwhile owner, who offered the staff little in the way of communication for large periods of a miserable summer. Staff members were left quizzing senior employees who often weren’t equipped with the requisite information on whether should expect to be able to pay their forthcoming bills, while others turned to journalists and football agents to see if they had heard anything in a desperate attempt for clarity.
With payment problems arising for non-football staff early last summer, union action was taken reluctantly by a few dozen staff as far back as October after they held on out of fear or of a sense of loyalty to the club many of them support. Some staff had to take out loans or borrow cash from family members to meet their financial obligations each month.
Beyond the payment issues, other problems persisted. Broken facilities left some employees complaining of the cold and water and occasional sanitary issues have been widely reported. The new owners have committed to vast repairs at the stadium and training ground, with work having begun this week.
Staff were invited to a Q&A meeting with new chairman David Storch last month and were told strongly that the club’s new ownership would ‘demand excellence’ from its workforce - and would receive better resources with which to do their jobs and achieve that goal. A new CEO has been appointed in David Bruce, who appears to have gone down well in-house. Further hires are expected to supplement the club’s existing workforce, which in most departments is threadbare for a club of its operating size.
Sources close to the workforce at S6 have told The Star of an expectation of a culture change. There are pre-existing issues the new ownership may look to resolve in the coming weeks and months to redress certain imbalances for the wider workforce. The Star understands that - while it cannot speak for all individual cases - there has been no basic pay review across the club for a number of years despite the rapid rise in the cost of living.
Other basic employee work benefits are stripped to their minimum legal level, which makes recruitment and some employees retention difficult. New starters, for example, are understood to receive the legal minimum 20 days holiday allowance, a figure well below industry standard. The Star is aware of a number of employees in a stretched workforce who undertake duties far outside their job descriptions unpaid. Other below-par worker allowances are known.
Unite regional officer Daniel Gawthorpe, who liaised with staff during the autumn of their hardship, said on the improvement of basic facilities at S6: "It's great news to hear of the investment in the facilities and training ground. Our members complained of boilers breaking leaving no heating or hot water and ingress water from leaking roofs at the stadium. Under the ownership of Dejphon Chansiri the stadium was not properly maintained. This is great news for our members and supporters of the club."