'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past!'

So goes the famous Big Brother Mantra from George Orwell's celebrated dystopian novel, 1984.

It seems to be a Mantra adopted by many hotel and restaurant chains. They firmly believe that they control the present, so they want to control our past in order to control our future.

They want us to believe that long hours, Unpaid is Wages and lack of proper breaks is simply the way things are in kitchens. They want to demoralise us into thinking it has always been that way. They want to brainwash us into thinking that hospitality workers can't organise into trade unions, never could and never will.

But this is simply not true.

Today marks the 71st anniversary of a strike that shook the hospitality industry to its foundations. Starting with a walk out by chefs, waiters and chambermaids demanding union recognition at the Savoy and reinstatement of a sacked chef the strike quickly spread to Claridges, the Ritz and the Dorchester. At its height as many as 50,000 London hotel and restaurant workers were on strike. Workers from Smithfield refused to deliver meat to hotels and a wealthy American tourist staying at the Savoy donated a huge sum to the strike fund. The strikers matched on Parliament demanding justice and better treatment.

Their actions led to a strengthening of the catering wages board which was transformed into the sector Wage Council. For the next 4 decades trade unions were able to negotiate concrete improvements in terms and conditions. Higher minimum wage rates for kitchen staff, a 39 hour week, time and a half for hours over 39, time and a half for working your rest first rest day, double time for working your second rest day, double time for working bank holidays.

In the 80's Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government succumbed to employer pressure and weakened the scope of Wage Councils.

In the 90's John Major Conservative Government succumbed to further pressure and abolished them altogether.

Since then hotel chain have colluded under the umbrella of the British Hospitality Association to relentlessly drive down pay and conditions, rolling back all the gains we made in the second half of the 20th Century.

But we intent to change things. We intend to win back what was lost, through organising a strong union presence in every kitchen. We intend to revive the spirit of '46!

Contact 

chefscombine@gmail.com

 

You Gotta' Pick a Pocket or Two!


Been constantly mugged by the artful dodges of the hospitality industry.

Applied a while back for a job as a CDP. The rate offered was £9 an hour.

Had to do a trail shift of 5 hours. Didn't get paid for that.

£45 out of my pocket and into the employers!

Got the job - salary contract based on 40 hours but working 10 hour days for 5 days a week. That's 50 hours a week. Not paid for the extra 10.

£90 every week out of my pocket and into my employers!

Supposed to get half an hour unpaid break every shift - but can never take it due to staff shortages.

£22 out of my pocket every week and into my employers!

Lost a week's holiday because dates were refused due to staff shortages. Couldn't carry over to this year.

£360 out of my pocket and into my employers!

But hang on I haven't been paid for those 10 hours and my holiday pay should be an average - so every time I go on holiday I lose money.

£280 out of my pocket and into my employers!

Had to take some time off because I got sick due to working excessive hours and not getting my breaks. Not paid for the first 3 days.

£216 out of my pocket and into my employers!

I'm down almost £6,000 on the year!

Looks like Fagin is alive and well and operating in a kitchen near you!

It Makes You Sick

A recent survey of over 200 chefs showed that a third returned to work in their kitchens within 48 hours of being absent due to ill health, even when they have been suffering from vomiting or diarrhoea. The report highlights the risks of contamination and infection with obvious reference to food poisoning outbreaks. One press article referred to these early returners as irresponsible chefs.

But who is really acting irresponsibly here? The chefs or the employers?

There can be many reasons for chefs who are sick returning to work before they are fully fit.

For some it is a financial question. A huge number of UK hotels and restaurants offer no contractual sick pay at all. This means you are left with the minimum entitlement of Statutory Sick Pay for which you receive nothing whatsoever for the first 3 days and then a measly £88.45 a week after that. Many chefs simply can't afford to pay their bills on that amount of money and find themselves forced back to work by circumstance when they are still quite ill.

For others it is pressure from their employer. Being pestered constantly as to when they are coming back to work. Or being required by their company policy to phone in every day to explain their absence. Many hotels and restaurants operate a three strikes and you're out principle under their attendance management schemes. Staff who are off sick too long run the risk of being disciplined or dismissed.

There is also loyalty to the brigade. These days kitchens constantly run short staffed. And many chefs who are ill start to feel guilty about the extra hours their colleagues are having to put in to cover for them. Again this is largely a situation created by irresponsible employer action in failing to set pay and conditions at a level which attracts and retains crew members.

Unite's own survey shows that.

78% of chefs have had an accident or near miss due to feeling overtired

51% are suffering depression due to overwork

56% take painkillers to see them through their shift

Creating a climate where chefs feel forced or obliged to come back to work before they are fully fit simply makes a bad situation worse and it is conditions like this that are driving people out of the industry. Time to organise to change this - email -chefscombine@gmail.com

Beware of Tronc Masters Bearing Gifts

I work as a Sous Chef.

You might be surprised to hear that my hourly rate of pay is £7.50 an hour, which is exactly the same as a kitchen porter, a waiter or a bar tender in the restaurant I work in. There is no differential at all to recognise the skills I bring to the job or the responsibilities I have.

The reason for this is that all of the staff, regardless of position, have been placed in a Tronc which allocates a monthly share of the 12.5% discretionary Service Charge applied to items on the menu.

We all get a fixed amount each month, regardless of how busy the restaurant is or how much income has been generated. The fixed amount depends on what job you do and not on what contribution you have made to the level of service or the quality of the meal. Customers think the service charge goes to the staff. But it obviously doesn’t and it is clear that the company are probably keeping large amounts for themselves.

I contacted Unite back in April when the National Living Wage increased from £7.20 an hour to £7.50 an hour. At the same time, my fixed monthly share of the service charge went down substantially without any explanation. This happened to my colleagues as well.

With the help of Unite we started asking questions and challenging what had happened.

Two things became clear.

Firstly, that the Tronc was not being run by our employer. They had appointed an external accountancy consultant firm to make decision about how much we would receive from the service charge. Secondly, it was admitted that this company had entered into discussions with my employer when the NLW increased and had agreed as a result of the increase to cut our share of the service charge.

The Union pointed out this was potentially illegal.

After a number of challenges made to the external consultant the original value of the service charge was restored for everyone and any loss of earnings backdated to April.

That’s a good result – but we still have a bitter taste in our mouth and loads of unanswered questions.

For example, where is the money for the consultant’s fee coming from? Is it from service charge? How much is he getting? How is it that he has laid down rules that give him the absolute discretion to decide how much we get? How is it that he agreed to consult with senior managers but not with staff about what happens to our money? How is it that we are on a fixed amount, even in busy periods? Where does the rest of the money go?

On top of this we get the raw end of the deal. Our service charge share can apparently be cut again at any time. Because Tronc is exempt from both employer and employee National Insurance Contributions it means a whole chunk of my income isn’t going to recognised for my pension or other state benefits.

It also means only my minimum hourly rate of £7.50 is the only thing that would be taken into account if I want a bank loan or mortgage, the service charge element would be disregarded as non-contractual. Despite all my training and experience I’ve now been effectively designated as a minimum wage worker because my employer has set up an exploitative business model in collusion with an external consultant.

Unite has told me that this pay model is becoming more common in restaurants and has even started creeping into hotels. It’s another way that employers are denigrating and devaluing our profession as chefs.

Chefs – heed my word – beware of Tronc Masters bearing apparent gifts. They ain’t what they seem. We have to make a stand now, before it gets worse than it already is!

Forget What You Learned and Learn to Forget

Like a lot of chefs I went to catering college to learn my trade. I learned not only the key elements of culinary skills, but also how to do things correctly and how to work safely and hygienically.

But sadly I've found that in the real world of hotel and restaurant kitchens I am not actually able to put any of that into practice and I'm kind of pressured and bullied into forgetting whatever I was taught. This is because of staff and skills shortages and employers setting wholly unrealistic labour cost targets.

I increasingly find myself working with untrained staff who work unsafely, putting themselves and other brigade members at risk. I find myself forced put common sense on the back burner and end up cutting corners.

When I attempt to do things right I get told off not working fast enough and get harassed. It seems to be all about productivity and quantity not about the quality of what is produced. I've been asked  to sign for hygiene and safety guidance I've not actually not read in order to cover someone's back when it comes to an audit. I've seen inexperienced staff hassled into signing for safety training they've never actually received.

When I've raised complaints about such things nothing happens. At best I am ignored. At worst I get belittled and ridiculed for actually giving a damn. It seems that not only am I supposed to forget what I learned - but I am supposed to learn to forget.

Forget that I can spend 12 or 14 hours a day working in chaotic and hazardous conditions. Forget I never get a proper break or get constant hassle when I ask to take a holiday. Forget I never get paid properly for the hours I work.

Apparently the reward will be that one day I will get to run my own kitchen. Then I will be able to treat my brigade in the same manner. Wow! I can look forward to becoming a bully who forces people to work unsafely because I'm under pressure to meet a budget set by some accountant. My future is rosy then!

One thing I learned as a consequence of becoming a Unite member and getting active in the Chefs Combine is that I am not alone. It seems to be the tactic of hospitality employers to try and isolate and individualise every aspect of our employment. That way they can apply the age old tactic of divide and rule to get their own way on everything.

Here's the news some of us are learning new things and we're not going to forget them any time soon.

Join us

Chefscombine@gmail.com

Manage Your Time Better?

A survey conducted by Unite back in April found that two thirds of London chefs believe that the long and punishing hours are impacting their health.

I can verify this as a chef with twenty years’ experience working long and anti-social hours.

I have recently developed arthritis in my thumb joints largely brought about by the repetitive strain of manual work.

I have developed sleep apnoea as a result of working late nights and early mornings (catching sleep in my afternoon break wherever possible. Sometimes in staff rooms).

Last year I had a serious car accident after working a series of punishing shifts and my judgement was clearly sluggish because of exhaustion.

Probably the worst incident I witnessed was my head chef collapsing at the pass one day. He had put in a series of long days without any breaks or respite. He had a stroke and was only in his early forties.

When he was off sick, I questioned the management of the hotel on why he felt obligated to work so much, they responded

 ‘It’s his own fault. He should manage his time better’.

Organisations cannot wash their hands of any responsibility in these matters. They have a duty of care to their staff. Salaried staff are often told to manage their own hours and then given a workload that simply is not achievable within their contracted hours. The TUC estimates that £33.6 billion of free overtime was worked in 2016. I’m sure a substantial share of it comes from our industry.

That is why I am not ‘Opted out’ of the European 48 working time directive and I urge all chefs to ‘opt back in to 48’, join Unite chefs combine - let's really manage our time better and start dragging our industry out of the dark ages!

Good Reason To Opt Back in to 48 Hours

One
54% of chefs in our survey work 48 to 60 hours a week. 14% work in excess if 60. That is not good for your health!

Two


51% are expected to come in before the official start of their shift. 54% expected to work through their breaks. That a whole lot of money going in to employers' pockets!

Three

56% take pain killers, 27% alcohol, 41% other stimulants to see them through their shift. That is not good for your state of mind!



Four

78% have had an accident or near miss at work due to fatigue. That's way too many!

Five

69% believe their hours impact on their health. 51% suffer depression due to being overworked. It's not what any of us went into the trade for!

TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR HOURS

OPT BACK IN TO THE 48 HOUR LIMIT!