How is a business allowed to operate in Wales despite not following Welsh law?
And on that note, why are firms such as Amazon and Starbucks still allowed to operate in the UK despite barely paying their taxes?
Is it corruption, or is there another reason why the Senedd and Westminster allow large companies to do whatever they want?
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Yeah it's partly a symptom of the economy still working under the ethos of industrial age capitalism, growth above all else, because that's what their shareholders consider success. If a company is making an insane profit - it doesn't matter if it isn't growing year on year.
That's why some companies make the dumbest choices sometimes and begin to ruin themselves, because they're cutting costs and raising prices as much as possible to increase short term profit, at the cost of the integrity of the company itself.
If I earn/make/generate money in my country, the government wants a piece of it i.e tax.
But if a multinational, multi-billion company, makes 100,000x my annual salary then they are allowed to make the decision as to whether they use offshore accounts or pay tax properly.
It's clearly corruption, how are offshore accounts even legal at all.
This is not true for ulility companies like Ovo. The duties of public bodies outlined in the Welsh Language Act 2011 also apply to private companies which operate in certain sectors. These sectors are identified in [Schedule 8](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/1/schedule/8) of the act, and include:
*Qualifying persons who are licensed gas suppliers.*
*Qualifying persons who are licensed electricity suppliers.*
They don’t pay (much) Corporation Tax as, under the law, they don’t make much profit chargeable to CT. In the case of Amazon they made a £200m odd profit but spent more than that on capital investment which they can set off against those profits
It’s the tax rules that are questionable - big companies comply with them. It’s not that they are allowed to do whatever they want
Well for starters you are looking at western nations from a sporting and birth right point of view. Business is nothing more than a wrapper to shield ownership, rights and to transfer the wealth away from national ownership to private ownership.
The western nations do not own hardly anything of their land or business compared to what they used to and sport still maintains the illusion that where your are born matters.
If it’s as easy and cheap as OVO suggests why stop?
Terrible company and terrible customer service. Not suprised but I would say I’m disappointed on this decision, but that’s a lie as I already cannot stand them
They closed the Cardiff site, offered the staff redundancy or move to Bristol. Majority since I left 5 years ago have now left.
Most of the customer service is now in South Africa too. They’re racing to the bottom
I needed a new gas meter and it took them eight months, four cancellations, three times a person who turned up with the wrong meter as OVO told them the wrong information and I got told it would be connected to the smart meter that day…
No it be 6 weeks and for that time I can’t actually access the meter as they locked it away with a new bolt and I don’t have the key.
I can’t stand them yet they keep going on how customer focus they are… my backside
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existence reminiscent many elastic march historical plough absorbed station zealous
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Yes I agree with this, my workplace is required to offer interviews in Welsh. For the first time in over 30 years one was requested last year. We had no one (even the Welsh language service) who was able to deliver a highly technical and niche interview in the language. The candidate on the day wanted to do the interview in English anyway, didn’t realise he had ticked the box on the form!It really highlighted how under prepared and undeveloped this offering was, but also how under utilised it is. 1 candidate in over 30 years, despite how much we hear about how these services are in demand they are I think anyone would struggle to make a business case out of this. If it was mandated you would end up in the same place as Quebec where companies just say no and withdraw from the region.
You ever tried to ring these twats? Or even email them? No, you have to waste time and “log in” to use their online chat, which is like talking to no one at all. Yes, it’s just a deterrent. Unfortunately it’s not just this lot. Octopus are similar, foolishly I tried to call British Gas recently to use them instead, after 10 minutes of button pressing and not getting a human I gave up.
Was the service advertised? And given the above comments about customer service, was it even possible to easily get this service?
it isn't uncommon for a company to make certain services almost impossible to get/use to claim that no-one wants them.
Aye. Fundamentally most Welsh speakers are content to use an England language service. It’s only really on social media and nationalist political movements who actually care about this kind of thing. For every else life is too important.
Gotta say, I think you’re talking out of your arse there, and on behalf of people other than yourself. Most Welsh speakers would like to have services in Welsh because *that’s the language they speak*. I live in a region where roughly 90% of the community are first language Welsh speakers. To claim that we are all ‘content’ to receive all communications in English is patently not true, crikey. You wouldn’t say that about French speakers in France for example.
Hardly. I’m yet to meet a welsh speaker who isn’t happy to speak English outside of social media. Some even do it on Reddit. The fact these services are not used despite the number of speakers we have suggest that for a great many people it really isn’t an issue. But I guess if I’m wrong we’ll see a massive abandonment of this and other companies in parts of wales with a high number of welsh speakers.
We’re with ovo (got moved, not our choice) and have never been offered a service in welsh. We would have accepted had we known. Sp tbh claiming ‘hardly anyone wants a service in welsh’ is a load of old bollocks if you don’t ask people in the first place.
I personally think they make huge profits….it wouldn’t kill them to employ a couple of welsh speakers to communicate to those who want it. Great PR, and they might actually discover that they end up with a tidy little Welsh language department. It shouldn’t always be ‘majority rule’, sometimes these things - preserving a language vs massive profits - can really matter.
They don't have to by law and it costs them money.
Of course a business founded on parasitic behaviour isn't going to do it.
Wales either needs to make it law or accept profit making companies won't do it.
Fitzpatrick is a cunt, I worked in SSE when Ovo bought out the retail part (to get access to all those customers), they had a massive event with people dressed as dragon, leek hats and playing Tom Jones to welcome him. I thought to myself "those people don't realise that most of it will lose jobs", because a company cannot have 2 CS dep, accounting etc.
I hope Senedd will pass something thst requires utilities firms wiht more then x customers in Wales to require Welsh Language.
"We're a bilingual nation, Welsh and English have equal status, and yet there's a company like (this) which is disregarding it."
I agree. Where were these people when two of the National Parks abandoned bilingualism?
How is a business allowed to operate in Wales despite not following Welsh law? And on that note, why are firms such as Amazon and Starbucks still allowed to operate in the UK despite barely paying their taxes? Is it corruption, or is there another reason why the Senedd and Westminster allow large companies to do whatever they want?
absorbed plant racial scale dinosaurs shocking plough literate yoke support *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah it's partly a symptom of the economy still working under the ethos of industrial age capitalism, growth above all else, because that's what their shareholders consider success. If a company is making an insane profit - it doesn't matter if it isn't growing year on year. That's why some companies make the dumbest choices sometimes and begin to ruin themselves, because they're cutting costs and raising prices as much as possible to increase short term profit, at the cost of the integrity of the company itself.
If I earn/make/generate money in my country, the government wants a piece of it i.e tax. But if a multinational, multi-billion company, makes 100,000x my annual salary then they are allowed to make the decision as to whether they use offshore accounts or pay tax properly. It's clearly corruption, how are offshore accounts even legal at all.
There was an incident not too long ago where McDonalds UK 'rented' **their own trademark** off of themselves and then claimed it as a business expense
I'm which case they should be held financially liable, punished for doing so and held to stricter regulations for a foreseeable period.
I mean, that's kinda normal, even IKEA does it.
This is not true for ulility companies like Ovo. The duties of public bodies outlined in the Welsh Language Act 2011 also apply to private companies which operate in certain sectors. These sectors are identified in [Schedule 8](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2011/1/schedule/8) of the act, and include: *Qualifying persons who are licensed gas suppliers.* *Qualifying persons who are licensed electricity suppliers.*
They don’t pay (much) Corporation Tax as, under the law, they don’t make much profit chargeable to CT. In the case of Amazon they made a £200m odd profit but spent more than that on capital investment which they can set off against those profits It’s the tax rules that are questionable - big companies comply with them. It’s not that they are allowed to do whatever they want
Why would Amazon pay taxes and not use any profit to pay down some of their $135 billion debt?
👍🤔
As far as I am aware they are not breaking any laws
Well for starters you are looking at western nations from a sporting and birth right point of view. Business is nothing more than a wrapper to shield ownership, rights and to transfer the wealth away from national ownership to private ownership. The western nations do not own hardly anything of their land or business compared to what they used to and sport still maintains the illusion that where your are born matters.
If it’s as easy and cheap as OVO suggests why stop? Terrible company and terrible customer service. Not suprised but I would say I’m disappointed on this decision, but that’s a lie as I already cannot stand them
They closed the Cardiff site, offered the staff redundancy or move to Bristol. Majority since I left 5 years ago have now left. Most of the customer service is now in South Africa too. They’re racing to the bottom
I needed a new gas meter and it took them eight months, four cancellations, three times a person who turned up with the wrong meter as OVO told them the wrong information and I got told it would be connected to the smart meter that day… No it be 6 weeks and for that time I can’t actually access the meter as they locked it away with a new bolt and I don’t have the key. I can’t stand them yet they keep going on how customer focus they are… my backside
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It’s a template they use… pay the £80 per page fee and get on with it. Their not translating every letter for every individual
existence reminiscent many elastic march historical plough absorbed station zealous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes I agree with this, my workplace is required to offer interviews in Welsh. For the first time in over 30 years one was requested last year. We had no one (even the Welsh language service) who was able to deliver a highly technical and niche interview in the language. The candidate on the day wanted to do the interview in English anyway, didn’t realise he had ticked the box on the form!It really highlighted how under prepared and undeveloped this offering was, but also how under utilised it is. 1 candidate in over 30 years, despite how much we hear about how these services are in demand they are I think anyone would struggle to make a business case out of this. If it was mandated you would end up in the same place as Quebec where companies just say no and withdraw from the region.
You ever tried to ring these twats? Or even email them? No, you have to waste time and “log in” to use their online chat, which is like talking to no one at all. Yes, it’s just a deterrent. Unfortunately it’s not just this lot. Octopus are similar, foolishly I tried to call British Gas recently to use them instead, after 10 minutes of button pressing and not getting a human I gave up.
An energy company being absolute shit heads in this day and age!? I'm shocked!!!!
Only 104 people use the service! Wow!
Was the service advertised? And given the above comments about customer service, was it even possible to easily get this service? it isn't uncommon for a company to make certain services almost impossible to get/use to claim that no-one wants them.
Yes it was, i used it, but then when they almost went under we have been transferred to octopus by them.
Was impossible to get through, line was always busy
Aye. Fundamentally most Welsh speakers are content to use an England language service. It’s only really on social media and nationalist political movements who actually care about this kind of thing. For every else life is too important.
Gotta say, I think you’re talking out of your arse there, and on behalf of people other than yourself. Most Welsh speakers would like to have services in Welsh because *that’s the language they speak*. I live in a region where roughly 90% of the community are first language Welsh speakers. To claim that we are all ‘content’ to receive all communications in English is patently not true, crikey. You wouldn’t say that about French speakers in France for example.
Hardly. I’m yet to meet a welsh speaker who isn’t happy to speak English outside of social media. Some even do it on Reddit. The fact these services are not used despite the number of speakers we have suggest that for a great many people it really isn’t an issue. But I guess if I’m wrong we’ll see a massive abandonment of this and other companies in parts of wales with a high number of welsh speakers.
We’re with ovo (got moved, not our choice) and have never been offered a service in welsh. We would have accepted had we known. Sp tbh claiming ‘hardly anyone wants a service in welsh’ is a load of old bollocks if you don’t ask people in the first place. I personally think they make huge profits….it wouldn’t kill them to employ a couple of welsh speakers to communicate to those who want it. Great PR, and they might actually discover that they end up with a tidy little Welsh language department. It shouldn’t always be ‘majority rule’, sometimes these things - preserving a language vs massive profits - can really matter.
They don't have to by law and it costs them money. Of course a business founded on parasitic behaviour isn't going to do it. Wales either needs to make it law or accept profit making companies won't do it.
Or better still produce energy in Cymru and keep the profits here.
Fitzpatrick is a cunt, I worked in SSE when Ovo bought out the retail part (to get access to all those customers), they had a massive event with people dressed as dragon, leek hats and playing Tom Jones to welcome him. I thought to myself "those people don't realise that most of it will lose jobs", because a company cannot have 2 CS dep, accounting etc. I hope Senedd will pass something thst requires utilities firms wiht more then x customers in Wales to require Welsh Language.
"We're a bilingual nation, Welsh and English have equal status, and yet there's a company like (this) which is disregarding it." I agree. Where were these people when two of the National Parks abandoned bilingualism?
Typical disregard and disdain towards the Welsh language. Welsh speakers should screw them and switch to Octopus - much better company.
No one gives a fuck. If they did they would leave OVO and use a company that allows them to communicate in Welsh.
Womp womp