{"id":12050,"date":"2017-04-07T15:15:30","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12050"},"modified":"2017-04-07T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:17:00","slug":"change-has-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12050","title":{"rendered":"Change has to come"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hospitality workers are among the hardest working yet lowest paid, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hardly surprising that low wages and unfair tipping practices are two of the biggest issues facing our members. After all, most are paid little more than the national minimum wage and are heavily reliant on tips just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

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So whenever a new story appears exposing an employer for pocketing the optional service charge, instead of giving it to staff or taking a cut of staff tips to cover till shortages or customer walk-outs, it has not gone down well with the dining public.<\/p>\n

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Celebrity chef, Michel Roux Jr\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting caught paying staff less than the minimum wage at his \u00c2\u0141212-a head Mayfair restaurant was a new low. The critic, Jay Rayner, coming to his friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defence, said the problem of underpayment in the industry is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098systemic.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 As if this somehow excused treating staff so badly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but why does the industry let such situations persist?<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Close to breaking point\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Many of our members have a love hate relationship with the industry that they have chosen to make their living in. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098addictive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a buzz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fast-paced\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098exhilarating\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on the one hand, but can leave them feeling \u00e2\u20ac\u0098undervalued\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098underpaid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bullied\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098close to breaking point\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 too.<\/p>\n

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Some will say that it is an industry of extremes; that if you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. But who does this benefit? \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly not the workers, who are left struggling to make ends meet, burnt-out and driven to leave, but nor is it the employers, who have to replace and re-train a conveyor belt of new recruits.<\/p>\n

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Retention and recruitment is a huge problem in the industry. The hospitality sector still has one of the highest turnover rates of any industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Over 350,000 people leave the sector every year, at a cost of \u00c2\u0141274m to employers.<\/p>\n

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Brexit will only make things worse.\u00c2\u00a0 EU nationals make up around 24 per cent for the sector\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers. According to the British Hospitality Association (BHA) it could take 10 years to replace EU hospitality workers after Brexit.<\/p>\n

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So what can employers do to improve things for their staff? A simple three step recipe would be to\u00c2\u00a0stop dipping into their tips; add in a wage they can live on and garnish with a genuine investment in their futures; giving them the skills and training they need to develop and progress.<\/p>\n

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Adopting clear and transparent tipping policies, spelling out any deductions and how non-cash tips and service charges are shared out will eliminate some of the confusion around tipping.<\/p>\n

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No excuses <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But really there should be no excuses for not giving staff 100 per cent of their tips. Pizza Hut, Garfunkel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Wagamama and now Pizza Express too, are just some of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fair tips employers showing that this can be done.\u00c2\u00a0 In addition, paying staff a genuine living wage would result in huge savings in terms of recruitment, retention and improved attendance.<\/p>\n

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But if the sector is to shake off its negative image and rise to the challenges in post-Brexit Britain, things have got to change on a much broader level. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098race to the bottom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 business model adopted by the industry needs to be challenged and dismantled.<\/p>\n

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Workers deserve a wage they can live on and fair tips; safe, secure work; training and career development opportunities and the right to join a trade union \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recipe for decent work for all in hospitality.<\/p>\n

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It means an end to unfair tipping practices, zero hour and short-hour contracts and the open hostility to trade unions that has been allowed to take root. It means treating staff fairly and investing in training programmes that will help them reach their full potential, and attract new recruits.<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just not right that nearly two years after Unite first exposed Pizza Express for skimming an excessive admin fee from tips paid on a card, and despite the huge public backlash to the many rip-off tip scams which later emerged, some restaurants are still making headlines for pocketing staff tips.<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time the industry stopped seeing trade unions as the enemy within and let us in. Work with us to improve working conditions and tackle your recruitment problems.\u00c2\u00a0 There needs to be a two-way conversation going on. Constructive criticism shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be seen as an attack, but as an opportunity to engage.<\/p>\n

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Engage with us as the independent voice of workers in the industry. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a long time coming, but change has to come and it has to come soon.<\/p>\n

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This feature first appeared in Food made good\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hospitality workers are among the hardest working yet lowest paid, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hardly surprising that low wages and unfair tipping practices are two of the biggest issues facing our members. After all, most are paid little more than the national minimum wage and are heavily reliant on tips just to make ends meet.   So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[302,303],"wps_subtitle":"And for hospitality staff it has to come soon","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12050"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12053,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050\/revisions\/12053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}