Shrewsbury Town to top up wages as players and staff furloughed
Shrewsbury Town have decided against negotiating wage deferrals for April – as players and the majority of staff are placed on furlough.
The club do not believe the opportunity to negotiate an up to 25 per cent wage deferral for players, as agreed by the PFA and EFL, is the right step to take in the long term.
The club have instead opted to place players and most full-time staff on furlough leave – with only a skeleton staff remaining – to ensure those are eligible for the Government Job Retention Scheme grant of 80 per cent of wages, which is capped at £2,500 per month.
Shrewsbury have agreed to top up the remainder of players' and staff wages.
Town's chief executive Brian Caldwell feels the wage deferral option does little to help further down the line as players would still need to receive the money.
Caldwell told the club's website: "At the end of the day, deferring players wages is a difficult one.
"From a first point of view, players will be out of pocket from the money they were expecting at the end of the month, but secondly as well, deferring it you still need to pay it at some point.
“Because we’ve had some of our monies from next season front-loaded to the club and all clubs have that as well, it’s to use the term; ‘kicking the can down the road’ you’re deferring the money from the players and you’re then going to have to pay it next season or at some point in the future.
“We look at that and say is that right? Our income streams are likely to be less next season because we’ve actually had monies in advance from the EFL, so we think it’s morally the right thing to do to not to defer wages and to instead continue doing the right thing."
Like many other lower league clubs, Town have taken the decision to furlough its playing staff during the coronavirus lockdown.
“There’s been a lot of discussions between all League One and League Two clubs and a lot of the clubs have already done it and practically all clubs, if not all clubs in League One and League Two, will be furloughing their players.
"There’s an opportunity there to get some government funding back from the player's salaries however we will be topping up and paying the full 100 per cent to ensure nobody’s out of pocket," Caldwell said.
“We try to run the club sustainably, we try to run the club the right way as well and that in all aspects means we don’t want people to be out of pocket where possible, we’ve decided that we’re going to furlough the players and we’ll top that up from the 80 per cent to the 100 per cent.
"Obviously its capped at £2,500 a month anyway so, it’s something towards the wages at a time when the club like any other business has no income streams."
Caldwell revealed some staff within the first team, academy, ticket office and shop will remain in work, while the club's zero-hours contract staff will also be paid.
