Reclaim the day

Waiters, the UK’s worst paid workers, will call on Pizza Express to stop pocketing an estimated £am that should go to poorly paid staff, at a protest in central London tomorrow (May 21).

 
The protest – commencing at Pizza Express in Leicester Square and following onto Grosvenor House Hotel, the ‘birthplace’ of the zero hours contract – will kick off on the same day as National Waiters’ Day, an industry-led event to encourage more people into the profession.

 
Unite is reclaiming the day, however, to stand up and speak out against unfair tipping policies, zero-hours contracts and poverty pay which have left waiting tables top of the list of the UK’s worst paid jobs.

 
Give us our dough

 
Protesters will tell Pizza Express, which has 430 outlets across the UK, to ‘give us our dough’ and ‘stop pinching our tips’ over the company’s continued practice of deducting an eight per cent admin charge from customer tips paid with a credit card.

 
In the afternoon, protesters will take the fight to end zero-hours contracts to the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London where many waiting staff, particularly banqueting staff, still do not have permanent contracts.

 
Seven years ago Unite’s successful fair tips campaign lifted the lid on restaurants misusing tips to top up wages to the minimum wage. The law was changed, but this has not been enough to stop Pizza Express pocketing an estimated £am a year from the credit card admin charge.

 
Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull explained Unite’s past successes and what tomorrow’s protest hopes to achieve for waiters.

 
“Back in 2008, Unite spearheaded the fair tips campaign with protests outside restaurants like Pizza Express,” he said.

“Fast-forward seven years and we’re back to call on the company to scrap its unfair admin charge on tips once and for all. They claim its standard industry practice – it’s not.”

 
According to a snap survey of Unite waiting staff in London, 88 per cent feel cheated out of tips, 20 per cent are on zero-hours contracts and 63 per cent earn the minimum wage of just ÂŁ6.50 an hour.

 
Sasha, who works as a catering server at a big bank in London, explains how difficult life can be on low pay in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

 
“My wife is also on low pay, and what’s more, she’s on a zero-hours contract,” he said. “Life is a constant struggle. After we’ve paid all our bills, we have maybe £100 left over. I don’t even take any sort of public transport – I can’t afford it.”

 
Sasha, who cycles to work, says that he enjoys his job but the low pay and alienation among his colleagues, who feel that they aren’t listened to by their employers, makes it tough to get by.

 
This alienation is something Turnbull said was rife in the industry.

 
Angry

 
“Our members whether they work behind bars, in restaurants or provide room service in hotels are proud of the jobs they do,” he said. “But they are angry at the disrespect shown to them and their profession by highly profitable hotel and restaurant chains.

 
“If the hospitality industry is serious about inspiring more people to wait tables for a living it needs to do more to take poverty pay and zero-hours contracts off the menu for good,” he added.

 
Sasha and his colleagues have channelled their anger at low pay into fighting for the Living Wage.

 
“We’re trying to get our employers to pay us the London Living Wage,” he explained. “We’ve seen that the LLW idea is spreading quickly throughout London so we’re trying to keep the pressure up.”

 
Sasha explained that joining a union was absolutely instrumental if waiters and other workers in the hospital industry are to have a chance at better pay and working conditions.

 
“We need to keep the fight going,” he said.

 
Interested in joining Unite’s National Waiters Day protest? Find out more here.

 
WHEN: Thursday 21 May, starting at 12:00

 
WHERE:
• 12:00 Pizza Express Leicester Square, 43 Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square, WC2H 0AP
• 16:00, Grosvenor House Marriott Hotel, 86 Park Lane, W1K 7TN