Village Hotel staff balloted for strike action over pay and working conditions

Staff at a hotel and gym in Glasgow are to be balloted on strike action over pay and working conditions.

Around 90% of the food and beverage workforce and Unite members at the Village Hotel on Pacific Drive will vote on whether to take action after the company said it would not enter into talks on improved pay, contracts, and conditions.

The union looked to secure the real living wage of £12.60 per hour for its members, as well as paid breaks and a pay uplift and backpay for a small number of under-21 staff who receive less per hour than Village Hotels employees in Edinburgh.

The ballot opened this week and closes on July 15. If successful, it would be the first strike action in a major hotel chain for close to 40 years.

Unite members at Village Hotels in Glasgow had requested a direct say in how their pay and conditions are determined but were rebuked in a shocking letter from Village Hotels general counsel, Kelli Turner, who stated to Unite that the company was “very comfortable with our pay structure and employment terms more generally, and at this stage we have no plans to pay all employees the real living wage or to provide paid breaks.

“We know that we are not alone in this approach, which is one often adopted across the hospitality sector.”

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “Senior management at Village Hotels openly boast that they remain determined to exploit workers by refusing to pay the wages and conditions they deserve.

“Village Hotels is promoting in-work poverty and a poor working environment alongside undermining basic employment law in the sole pursuit of profit. Unite will back our members all the way in fighting back against such Victorian standards set by Village Hotels.”

Workers at Village in Glasgow have already won a backdated pay rise after it was discovered by Unite reps that there had been a significant wage disparity that disproportionately affected young women, as well as backdated pay for unpaid training over a period of up to two years.

Bryan Simpson, national lead for Unite hospitality, said: “Village Hotel workers deserve the real living wage, they deserve paid breaks and the right to have their union collectively bargaining for improved working conditions.

“The hospitality sector is notorious for its exploitative and precarious practices. The approach by Village management towards its workforce – which is to hide behind a race to the bottom – is scandalous.”

Around 90 per cent of the food and beverage workforce are involved in the dispute which follows the refusal of Village Hotels management to negotiate over improved pay, contracts, and conditions.