Gordon Ramsay's staff accuse him treating them 'like s**t' after chef lays off more than 500 restaurant workers due to coronavirus

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has been accused of treating his staff like a "piece of s**t" after he "laid off" more than 500 members of staff from his restaurants, which have been forced to temporarily down because of coronavirus.

A report by the Daily Mailstates that staff, including waiters and chefs were told their contracts were being terminated by email and that they would be paid up until 17 April but there was no guarantee that they would get their jobs back when the venues re-open.

28 year-old chef Anca Toropu, who had worked as a chef at the Bread Street Kitchen branch of Ramsay's restaurant empire took to Facebook to criticise the chef, for the action that his organisation has taken since the pandemic broke.

Speaking to the Mail, Toropu said:

All of us have worked so hard for Gordon Ramsay and he has just got rid of us when we needed his support the most. 

Many of the staff were left in tears at the way he has treated us. There was no warning. We were summoned to a meeting and told our contracts were being terminated. It was so brutal.

Staff from each of the restaurants were summoned to the Heddon Street restaurant where they were given the news. It was so awful and so many were in tears.

According to the Mail, the email that Ramsey's staff received read as followed:

I am writing to confirm that you have been given notice that your contract of employment will be terminated and you will be paid four weeks notice.

You will be placed on garden leave for the duration of your notice. Your P45, final holiday pay and any other monies owing will be forwarded to you in due course.

The decision appears to have been made just one day after Ramsay paid tribute to his staff on Instagram, stating that he hopes they'll all be "back together soon."

This decision to lay off the staff is seemingly in spite of the government's offer to partly fund workers who can no longer do their jobs by paying 80 per cent of their salary while the pandemic goes on.

A spokesperson for the restaurants said that they are in full support of the government's initiatives and are working to keep as many employees on as possible.

Gordon Ramsay Restaurants is continuing to work tirelessly in exceptional, unprecedented, global circumstances to ensure that as many employees as possible are being retained by the business.

We are no different from any other restaurant/retail business large and small in the UK and around the world responding to the current crisis. 

We welcome greatly and fully support all the initiatives introduced by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in particular the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme which is still being refined.

We continue to work closely with our landlords, government agencies and all third party suppliers associated with the business through these very challenging times.

Should the next series of Hell's Kitchen be set in one of Ramsay's empty kitchens? Maybe.