{"id":14215,"date":"2017-12-19T15:53:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14215"},"modified":"2017-12-19T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T15:53:14","slug":"respect-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14215","title":{"rendered":"Respect"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unmistakable look that night workers have after a long shift \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pink-eyed and delirious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the rest of the world starts their day, they carry on just a bit longer, maybe to grab a meal and chat with their fellow shift workers before they collapse at home in bed, forcing themselves into a sleep pattern so unnatural that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no getting used to it, no matter how long you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the gruelling hours aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only thing that Ali, Mahir and Abdul have had to contend with as workers at a hotel in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What started as a routine job in hospitality \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all worked other jobs in the industry \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has turned into a waking nightmare.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few months in, the three night team members suddenly had their paid breaks taken away \u00e2\u20ac\u201c without being notified. They were forced to take on duties that they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t contracted to do. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were essentially doing three jobs for the price of one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ali noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As night shift workers, they play a critical role in keeping guests safe. They should be trained in fire safety, bomb threats, food hygiene and premises licensing. But instead of receiving training, the three team members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 signatures were allegedly forged in documents indicating they had been trained when they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They raised issues over health and safety \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they were allegedly forced to serve out of date food to guests, and their concerns over a sewage leak were dismissed. As practicing Muslims, Ali, Mahir and Abdul* aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to consume or handle alcohol, but, despite this and not being trained in licensing, management allegedly pushed them into serving alcohol after licensed hours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a difference in the way you talk to a human and the way you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d talk to a dog,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Mahir explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe management, they talk to you like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a dog.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At one point, the three colleagues said they had had enough and refused to take on the extra work. Management retaliated by starting an investigation and accusing them of gross misconduct.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098You need a union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when Abdul, who had been taking a college course in business, approached his lecturer, a lawyer, about the problems he was having a work. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe told me you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a lawyer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you need a union.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The hotel workers then found Unite, which helped the three draw up a grievance which is now at the appeal stage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen we joined the union everything changed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ali said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagement dropped the investigation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The three said the union gave them a new sense of confidence. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne manager told me they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want any problems with the union, and I told them if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want any problems, then they should stop giving us problems,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Abdul said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, the three hotel workers are spreading word of Unite throughout the hotel. But they face an uphill battle \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the hospitality industry in the UK is notoriously anti-union. Since a large proportion of the workforce are migrants who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak English well and often don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know their rights at work, the prospect of joining a union can for many be frightening.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The British Hospitality Association (BHA), Unite hotels co-ordinator Charlotte Bence explains, is pointedly against improving pay, terms and conditions for workers, and even gives bosses guidance on avoiding engagement with unions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd ultimately people think this is just how the industry is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hospitality is synonymous with bad employment practices, it just is low pay; it just is bullying and harassment. People think that things can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be better.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hope<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But there are glimmers of hope. Besides Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s many smaller victories winning grievances for individual workers, tireless campaigning \u00e2\u20ac\u201c often spanning months or even years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is gradually chipping away at the notion that hotels must be a cesspool of bad work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In October, catering and hospitality firm WGC, which provides cleaners and other outsourced workers for many big hotels, agreed to abolish zero hours contracts following pressure from Unite.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And after a long Unite campaign, Meli\u0102\u02c7, a Spanish company with hotels in London and Manchester, agreed this summer to implement in the UK an international agreement it had made with the Unite-affiliated global union IUF.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now the hotel group is working constructively with the union \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supporting English as a second language classes (ESOL) facilitated by Unite. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also investing in its housekeepers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the company is giving staff the opportunity to complete NVQs so that they can advance in their careers or change roles altogether.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charlotte says that we need only look to New York City to understand how high we can set our sights for jobs typically considered low-paid and insecure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2012, an American hotel union secured an unprecedented city-wide deal for hotel workers, which sees, for example, housekeepers earn about $30 (\u00c2\u014123) an hour, provides them with free health care and secures them a generous pension as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have to get better about talking about what good work actually is,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Charlotte says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFar too many people look at retail, look at hospitality, or service sector jobs and regard them as quote-unquote \u00e2\u20ac\u0098crap jobs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. We say there is no such thing as a crap job. All there is is crap pay, terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She believes that fighting low-paid, insecure jobs now dominating the UK economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one recent report found the problem is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098endemic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, with only one in six people ever escaping the low pay trap \u00e2\u20ac\u201c requires a total change in thinking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just about raising terms and conditions, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about raising people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thinking over what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a right to expect. It isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just a question of if you join the union we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a conversation with your boss about a pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you have a right to expect better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople deserve to be treated with respect; they deserve a wage that they can live on; they deserve a voice in the workplace. At the moment, too many people believe they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deserve that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This feature first appeared in Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s members magazine <\/em>uniteWORKS. You can read the latest edition on the Unite website here<\/a>. Or as a Unite member you can receive a print or digital copy by changing your membership records through My Unite or by contacting your local regional office regional membership admin team.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unmistakable look that night workers have after a long shift \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pink-eyed and delirious.   As the rest of the world starts their day, they carry on just a bit longer, maybe to grab a meal and chat with their fellow shift workers before they collapse at home in bed, forcing themselves into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[92,729,96],"wps_subtitle":"All workers have a right to be respected - as hotel workers are finding out ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14215"}],"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=14215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14218,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14215\/revisions\/14218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}