{"id":4225,"date":"2015-05-20T16:33:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T15:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4225"},"modified":"2015-05-20T16:33:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T15:33:54","slug":"reclaim-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4225","title":{"rendered":"Reclaim the day"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Waiters, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worst paid workers, will call on Pizza Express to stop pocketing an estimated \u00c2\u0141am that should go to poorly paid staff, at a protest in central London tomorrow (May 21).<\/p>\n

 
\nThe protest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c commencing at Pizza Express in Leicester Square and following onto Grosvenor House Hotel, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098birthplace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of the zero hours contract \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will kick off on the same day as National Waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Day<\/a>, an industry-led event to encourage more people into the profession.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worst paid jobs.<\/p>\n

 
\nGive us our dough<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nProtesters will tell Pizza Express, which has 430 outlets across the UK, to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098give us our dough\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098stop pinching our tips\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued practice of deducting an eight per cent admin charge from customer tips paid with a credit card.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nSeven years ago Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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 \u00c2\u0141am a year from the credit card admin charge.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite regional officer Dave Turnbull explained Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past successes and what tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protest hopes to achieve for waiters.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBack in 2008, Unite spearheaded the fair tips campaign with protests outside restaurants like Pizza Express,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFast-forward seven years and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back to call on the company to scrap its unfair admin charge on tips once and for all. They claim its standard industry practice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAccording 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 \u00c2\u01416.50 an hour.<\/p>\n

 
\nSasha, 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy wife is also on low pay, and what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on a zero-hours contract,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLife is a constant struggle. After we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve paid all our bills, we have maybe \u00c2\u0141100 left over. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even take any sort of public transport \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nSasha, who cycles to work, says that he enjoys his job but the low pay and alienation among his colleagues, who feel that they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listened to by their employers, makes it tough to get by.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis alienation is something Turnbull said was rife in the industry.<\/p>\n

 
\nAngry<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members whether they work behind bars, in restaurants or provide room service in hotels are proud of the jobs they do,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut they are angry at the disrespect shown to them and their profession by highly profitable hotel and restaurant chains.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nSasha and his colleagues have channelled their anger at low pay into fighting for the Living Wage.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to get our employers to pay us the London Living Wage,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen that the LLW idea is spreading quickly throughout London so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to keep the pressure up.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nSasha 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to keep the fight going,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\nInterested in joining Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Waiters Day protest? Find out more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nWHEN: Thursday 21 May, starting at 12:00<\/p>\n

 
\nWHERE:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 12:00 Pizza Express Leicester Square, 43 Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square, WC2H 0AP
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 16:00, Grosvenor House Marriott Hotel, 86 Park Lane, W1K 7TN<\/p>\n

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

Waiters, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worst paid workers, will call on Pizza Express to stop pocketing an estimated \u00c2\u0141am that should go to poorly paid staff, at a protest in central London tomorrow (May 21).   The protest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c commencing at Pizza Express in Leicester Square and following onto Grosvenor House Hotel, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098birthplace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of the zero […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[92,96,95],"wps_subtitle":"Unite shows what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really like as a waiter on National Waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Day ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225"}],"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=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4226,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions\/4226"}],"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=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}