End precarious employment

Unite will ask MSPs to pledge their support for a worker’s charter that seeks to improve the pay and conditions for workers in the hospitality sector.

Unite will launch the Fair Hospitality campaign tomorrow (Thursday 15 June), giving a voice to Scotland’s 256,000 hospitality workers, and is asking MSPs to pledge their support to transform the sector for the better.

“Hospitality workers are the lowest paid and most precariously employed workers within the Scottish economy,” said Bryan Simpson, Unite Scotland’s hospitality sector organiser.

“More than 25 per cent of companies in the sector employ workers on zero-hours contracts with a significant number of workers earning below the minimum wage. This combination of poor pay and job insecurity is exploitative and demeaning to our members who do a fantastic job day in day out,” he added.

MSPs will hear first-hand, the plight of workers employed within restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars who are some of the most exploited in the economy, with many employed on less than ÂŁ7 an hour.

The Fair Hospitality campaign seeks to equip precarious workers with the knowledge to access their employment rights, provide them with the skills to organise colleagues as well as encouraging a collective confidence to challenge some of Scotland’s most exploitative employers; transforming the hospitality sector for those who work within it.

“Unite’s Fair Hospitality campaign seeks to transform the sector for the better by equipping workers with the knowledge they need about their rights at work as well as instilling a collective confidence to challenge bad employers,” said Bryan.

The centre-piece of Unite’s campaign is the Fair Hospitality charter which is a list of reforms needed to transform the sector for the benefit of employees and customers. The list includes the real living wage, an end to discriminatory youth wage rates and stricter anti-sexual harassment policies for the workplace.

“The outcome of last week’s general election, and the part played by young people in delivering the biggest political shake-up in generations, shows that young people have had enough of Tory austerity. This charter lays the foundations for a fight back,” added Bryan.

There will be a photo opportunity at Scottish Parliament, Committee room 6 (The Livingstone Room) 2pm-4pm tomorrow (Thursday 15 June).