Businessman Moans About Minimum Wage To James. It Doesn't Go As He Planned.

15 March 2017, 12:13

This is what happened when a small business owner told James O'Brien that he's doing well enough to open up a second shop...but still wants to moan about the minimum wage and defend zero hours contracts.

@lbc #lbc I just fell in love with James O'B. What an astonishing deconstruction of Toby & his ilk. Never thought I'd see the day.nix

— bagshotbutterfly (@nikkihoughton) March 15, 2017

Toby in Lewisham owns a fruit shop and business is going so well that he's got nine employees and is looking at opening a second shop. But he still felt the need to come on James's show and moan about the rising minimum wage and pension contributions he has to pay for his staff.

"A lot of people are not really thinking of the small business owners," he started. "The minimum wage keeps going up. How much more can we charge the customer to buy our products?

"So we always have to take the bill. It's crazy!

@LBC You notice with small business owners like Toby, there's usually a smart looking black sporty Merc sitting outside in a reserved space.

— joanne henry (@JoanHenry7) March 15, 2017

But while James admitted Toby was making some salient points, it was when he defended zero hours contracts that the LBC presenter had to step in.

"Sometimes when I hear people say: 'I don't have fixed hours', I can understand. Because sometimes when you have no business, when you have no-one walking into your shop, you're thinking: how am I going to pay the staff?|

James: "If you're business isn't making enough money to pay your staff a decent wage, you're a bad businessman."

"I'm opening a second one right now," said Toby. "Times must be really tough!" replied James. "Let me get my violin out.

"When you make a good profit at the end of the month, you share it out amongst the workers, don't you?"

When Toby said no, James had quite the reaction. See their full call above, it certainly sparked a reaction on Twitter:

You surely don't understand how small scale biz work. So closing down Toby's argument was shameful. @mrjamesob @LBC

— Augustine Aderonmu (@Bentigoh) March 15, 2017