King Charles' garden team quits over shocking work condition

King Charles is facing backlash as 11 of his 12 gardeners quit.

As reported by The Sunday Times, several gardeners at Charles' Highgrove House estate have resigned since 2022.

The reason behind the quit is said to be low wages and overwhelming demands.

The outlet reported that half of the team earned only minimum wage while maintaining the famous gardens, which attract over 40,000 visitors annually.

King Charles, known for his passion for gardening, often leaves detailed notes and instructions, which for some staff members were stressful.

One staff member complained that they developed "physical injuries trying to keep up, and that the team suffered from low morale."

Meanwhile, another was let go after "revealing a lack of knowledge about a particular flower." The outlet revealed that King Charles reportedly said, "Don’t put that man in front of me again."

It is worth mentioning that King Charles handed over management of the gardens to his charity, The King’s Foundation, in 2021.

However, after the staff complaints, the foundation hired a human resources consultancy, which confirmed issues like understaffing, low pay, and poor management.

Notably, a spokesperson for The King's Foundation shared a statement with People Magazine, "At The King’s Foundation, we take staff welfare extremely seriously and strive to be an exemplary employer. We are proud to regularly report very high satisfaction rates in our annual staff survey."

"Our staff turnover is well below the national average, as is the number of formal grievances raised. For the gardening team at Highgrove specifically, we regularly review guidance from the Professional Gardeners Guild for pay benchmarking," the statement read further.

Moreover, they also claimed that staff salaries have increased by 15–19% since 2022.