'Truly gobsmacking' | Tycoon slammed after calling for mass layoffs of 'arrogant' workers

A business tycoon is under fire after calling workers 'arrogant' and saying the unemployment rates should rise to shift the power in the employer-employee relationship back to firms.

Multi-millionaire Tim Gurner said that workers must remember “they work for the employer, not the other way around” and that “we need to see pain in the economy.”

Gurner, a property developer and CEO of The Gurner Group, was speaking at the Australian Financial Review's Property Summit when he made the inflammatory remarks.

“People decided they didn't really want to work so much through Covid and that has had a massive issue on productivity,” he said.