{"id":15775,"date":"2018-07-23T16:43:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15775"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","slug":"tgi-fridays-ceo-pay-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15775","title":{"rendered":"‘Scandalous’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As TGI Fridays workers continue in their fight for fair tips, it has now been revealed<\/a> that the restaurant chain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top boss is cashing in on a massive pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which takes her total pay to more than \u00c2\u0141350,000 a year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TGI Fridays chief executive Karen Forrester has seen her pay skyrocket from \u00c2\u0141260,000 to \u00c2\u0141365,420 annually \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a 40 per cent pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite the fact that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseen only a modest rise in turnover and an actual fall<\/em> in pre-tax profits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The irony isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lost on striking TGI Fridays workers, who are fighting the introduction of a policy that has seen 40 per cent of their card tips taken from them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the exact same percentage by which their CEO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay packet has soared.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under the policy introduced earlier this year, TGI Fridays has redistributed nearly half of waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 card tips to kitchen staff without their consultation, instead of giving kitchen staff a proper pay rise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The policy, which was railroaded through, sparked a series of strikes over the summer, with more walkouts potentially on the horizon. A ballot for further strike action opens on Thursday (July 26) and is set to close on August 10.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TGI Fridays waiters expressed anger over Forrester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay rise, which was awarded at a time when the CEO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low-paid workers are struggling to make ends meet under a tipping policy that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s slashed \u00c2\u0141250 a month from their take-home pay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI thought they were taking 40 per cent of our card tips for a kitchen staff pay rise, but no \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taking 40 per cent of our card tips for a Karen Forrester pay rise,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 one waitress told UNITElive. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essentially happening is one of the 1 per cent are taking 40 per cent of my card tips to make their personal wealth bigger.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another waitress told UNITElive that she was angry \u00e2\u20ac\u015bKaren [Forrester] is getting a pat on the back in the way of 40 per cent pay rise for implementing a money saving initiative to take 40 per cent off her low-paid staff.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have had to limit our food shops to \u00c2\u014115 a week; to stop taking our kids to their after school clubs; to give up our cars, and our once a year holiday; to go from working six days a week to seven just to be able to pay rent and afford to get to work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all to pay for an already spectacularly wealthy person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inflated salary.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Government tipping report<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Revelations of Forrester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay rise comes as the government has been accused of dropping its pledge to bring in tipping reforms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today (July 23) marks 765 days since the consultation on tips closed, but the government has yet to publish a response to the consultation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A recent freedom of information (FoI) request found<\/a> that the government has not even started drafting a response yet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a revelation that Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull called \u00e2\u20ac\u015bscandalous.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEvery day that passes since its consultation on fair tips closed is another day that allows bad bosses to exploit low paid workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt gives the likes of TGI Fridays the opportunity to interfere and manipulate the systems used to distribute tips internally to rip off workers and customers alike.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Labour MP Stephanie Peacock agreed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile ministers drag their feet, workers and customers alike are being ripped off by rogue bosses who are grabbing tips that were intended for staff,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told the Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is appalling that staff, often in precarious employment, are going into another busy summer season without the basic protection they deserve, with workers at TGI Fridays worked to take strike action to demand their share.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGovernment inaction will only fuel the suspicion that they have quitely abandoned their promises and want to let rogue bosses off the hook,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Peacock added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMinisters should come clean, and if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to take real action to stop this scandal, they need to get on with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turnbull warned the government that Unite would not let up in its fight for tipping justice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGovernment ministers will be sorely mistaken if they think this issue will go away and they can brush it under the carpet,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will not allow that to happen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As TGI Fridays workers continue in their fight for fair tips, it has now been revealed that the restaurant chain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top boss is cashing in on a massive pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which takes her total pay to more than \u00c2\u0141350,000 a year.   TGI Fridays chief executive Karen Forrester has seen her pay skyrocket from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[302,888],"wps_subtitle":"TGI Fridays CEO awarded massive pay rise \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as waiters struggle to pay rent","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26032,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775\/revisions\/26032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}