Unemployement has to jump 40-50%: Gurner

People were paid a lot to not do much during COVID: Gurner

Tim Gurner expressed regret over his comments

A comment by Tim Gurner, CEO of Gurner Group, a private development business during a property summit held by the Financial Review has drawn sharp criticisms from politicians and commentators across the world. 

During the summit, Tim Gurner said, “People decided they didn’t really want to work so much any more through COVID and that has had a massive effect on productivity. Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. They have been paid a lot to not do too much in the last few years and we need to see that change. We need to see unemployment rise. Unemployment has to jump 40-50% in my view. We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. When there’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them as opposed to the other way around it’s a dynamic that has to change. We’ve got to kill that attitude and that has to come through hurting the economy.” 

The video of this segment of his speech had become viral on social media with more than 25 million views. Labor Party MP Jerome Laxale said they were “comments you’d associate with a cartoon supervillain”. Gurner has subsequently expressed regret over his comments. He stated that his comments lacked empathy and did not consider the impact of a job for a person and their family.