{"id":713,"date":"2014-08-13T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T07:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=713"},"modified":"2014-08-12T16:34:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T15:34:35","slug":"put-much-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=713","title":{"rendered":"‘I put up with so much for so little’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In part three of this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Living Wage series, UniteLive spoke to a waitress who is barely scraping by, even as the London restaurant industry rakes in millions.<\/p>\n

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Elif Ekimci* is a waitress at a chain restaurant in central London. Ekimci has worked at the same restaurant for eight years, and has not once received a pay rise above the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe employer pays you nothing, so you depend on tips to get by,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the hours you need. Some days, if the weather is bad, no customers come in and you make nothing.<\/p>\n

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Ekimci explains that restaurants often charge their customers compulsory \u00e2\u20ac\u015bservice charges,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 but in many cases, the restaurant pockets this money. She says that the term \u00e2\u20ac\u015bservice charge\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 leads customers to believe that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re paying the staff a tip, when in fact, they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe service charge discourages customers from paying an extra tip,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen you depend on tips to make up for the fact that you earn nothing, this makes the job that much more difficult.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI know some days the restaurant will take in \u00c2\u014140,000 or \u00c2\u014150,000 in one day. I make around \u00c2\u014160 in one day. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really frustrating when you know they can afford to pay us more.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Ekimci doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work set hours, so her days vary from one day to the next.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYesterday,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explains, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI worked from 9 am to 11.30 pm with only a 30 minute break. I was constantly on my feet. It was exhausting.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The restaurant where Ekimci works does not have air conditioning, which means in the summer, workers are constantly overheated running back and forth from the kitchen.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe customers complain about the heat, too, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing we can do about it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not entirely their fault, but both the customers and the managers always get angry at us for things beyond our control. We are always being shouted at. We have to put up with so much and we earn so little.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Ekimci said that if she earned the London Living Wageof \u00c2\u01418.80 an hour, it would make the stresses of her job much more bearable.<\/p>\n

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She dreams of being able to spend more time with friends, save money and not have to be constantly keeping track of her spending.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSince my hours are so unpredictable and I work so much,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she says, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet friends like everyone else. If someone has a Sunday barbeque, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be given a shift in the last minute. I have no social life; you get very lonely.”<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI just want to live like a normal person,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Ekimci says. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lucky I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not married. If you have a family, as a waitress, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never see them.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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*Name changed to protect identity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part three of this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Living Wage series, UniteLive spoke to a waitress who is barely scraping by, even as the London restaurant industry rakes in millions.   Elif Ekimci* is a waitress at a chain restaurant in central London. Ekimci has worked at the same restaurant for eight years, and has not once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[23],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713"}],"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=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}