Union complains Trump’s Scottish golf resort got COVID-19 relief but still fired staff

Union officials in the U.K. have accused the Trump Organization of taking advantage of the country’s job retention program by accepting more than £500,000 in COVID-19 job funding but still firing staff members.

The Scotsman reports that union officials accused Trump’s Turnberry resort of carrying out an “all-out assault on jobs and conditions,” referring to the situation as a “scandal.”

The union representatives say at least £110,000, or just over $150,000, was claimed while former President Trump was still in office. The Scotsman reports at least 66 people were laid off from the golf resort since last summer.

The newspaper notes that the golf resort has not done anything wrong in claiming the funds as they are entitled to join the U.K.’s furlough initiative and other golf resorts have claimed more in funds.

However, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said the Trump Organization made a “mockery” of the U.K. program by “hoovering up” and still firing staff.

The RMT’s general manager, Mick Cash, said, “It is clear to us that at the very least the principles of the job retention scheme appear to have been breached by the Trump Organisation and that should now be subjected to a detailed and forensic investigation by HMRC.”

“It’s a scandal and as we slowly emerge from lockdown, we are calling for any discarded staff to be re-engaged on decent pay and conditions, and for that same principle to ‎be applied to new employees as well,” Cash added.

Trump’s Scottish golf course fell under scrutiny earlier this year after Scottish lawmakers called on the government to investigate where Trump obtained the funds to purchase the resort.

The lawmakers want First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon to ask for an “unexplained wealth order” which would start an accounting investigation to prove the source of Trump’s funding. If the Trump Organization is unable to prove that the money came from a legitimate source, the Scottish government could confiscate the property.

The golf course was bought during a spending spree Trump went through in 2006 and no indication was made at the time that he took out any loans to purchase the property.

Financial disclosure forms have revealed that the Turnberry property has been an enormous financial burden on the Trump Organization, costing more than $280 million through the years and never turning a profit.