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The Australian multi-millionaire says he “deeply regrets” his comments at a property summit, where he said unemployment needed to jump to 50% to create more productive workers.
Tim Gurner, CEO of real estate company Gurner Group, has come under fire after complaining about CORONAVIRUS INFECTION COVID The pandemic has changed the work ethic of employees.
The developer is known for his controversial comments after he made headlines in 2017 when he said millennials shouldn’t be buying smashed avocados or expensive lattes in an effort to save up for their first home.
Speaking at a business forum in Sydney on Tuesday, he said “we need to see pain in the economy” and that unemployment would need to rise by 40-50% to adjust expectations.
“People have decided they don’t really want to work as hard anymore because of COVID,” he said.
“They’ve been paid a lot not to do too much over the last few years, and we need to see that change.”
He added: “People need to be reminded that they are working for the employer, not the other way around.”
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His comments have been viewed more than 23 million times on X (formerly Twitter) after being posted to the Australian Financial Review.
Criticized by politicians and unions, Mr Gerner said on Thursday he “deeply regrets” his comments, admitting they were “deeply insensitive to employees, traditions and families around the world. Australia suffering from cost-of-living pressures and job losses.”
In a post on employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn, he said that while these are important conversations, his comments “were wrong”.
“I want to be clear: I understand that when someone loses their job, it has a huge impact on them and their families, and I sincerely regret that my words lacked compassion for those who find themselves in this situation,” wrote Mr. Gurner.
Following Mr. Gerner’s comments, American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a video with her followers on social media pointing to the growing discrepancy between the pay of executives and employees.
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“As a reminder, big CEOs have inflated their own pay so much that the CEO-to-worker ratio is now at the highest level ever recorded,” she wrote.
The latest data released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the unemployment rate remained stable at 3.7%.
But Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michelle Bullock warned back in June that the unemployment rate would need to rise to 4.5% – implying the loss of around 140,000 jobs – to curb inflation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
