hospitality

This year's May Day was celebrated in Brighton with the coming together of different local unions and groups organising against casualised working conditions and the housing crisis. The demo soon headed for a local restaurant that has been underpaying one of our members, and demanding they be paid. The protest marks the start of a dispute, continuing our efforts over the past few years of trying to bring International Workers Day back to its roots in worker militancy and anarchist labour organising. 

A dinner lady came to Brighton SolFed when there was nowhere left to go. They were facing a disciplinary hearing after being unfairly blamed for an incident, and they additionally were refused mainstream union representation. Brighton Hospitality Workers helped the worker prepare for the disciplinary and accompanied them to this stressful encounter. Solidarity means supporting your fellow workers, solidarity is what makes us strong.

Holiday pay is a common problem faced by workers in the hospitality industry - especially those on zero-hour contracts who are often unaware of of their legal right to holiday pay. Recently we supported a waitress from a cafe in the North Laine who was demanding holiday pay for herself and her workmates - and who managed to get the £600 she was owed.

If you regularly follow our activity probably you have realised that the housekeeper campaign is no longer active. This article aims to explain you what we tried to do, what we did and why the campaign is now on hold.

The housekeepers' campaign tried to expose the problems of workers in the tourist industry in Brighton through one of the hardest positions in the sector: those who clean every room in Brighton after a wild party, a family weekend or a romantic night. The idea of the campaign was to generate a discussion around working conditions in hostels, hotels and guest houses.

I worked a trial shift at the Ginger Dog pub. I was told that it would last for a 'couple' of hours. After three hours of working, I was told that it was going really well and that I had the job. In my experience, bosses in the hospitality sector will say this just to get people to work longer for free. I was asked to stay on and agreed to work for an extra three hours, meaning that I worked for six hours in total. I decided after this to not take the job and I contacted them the next day to tell them. I also requested payment for the full six hours worked. They did not respond to my email. I sent them another email and received no response again. I emailed them again and told them that if they didn't pay me, I would take action via Brighton SolFed, and I sent them some links to articles about previous cases. They emailed me back the same day and agreed to pay me for the three additional hours I worked beyond the initial three hour trial shift, which I accepted.

No contracts, unsure of the terms of employment, working to the whim of management, sound familiar? We are currently in a dispute with  Upper Crust Hove (no not the yellow chain everywhere) the one in West Hove’s golf club.

The worker came to Solfed for help after not being paid her full notice period pay, following having her hours changed upon them, which in effect forced them to leave employment.

This was not a mutual agreement; this was punishment for taking an agreed holiday which management forgot about.

Due to the fact nothing was laid out before hand, the ambiguity of terms and conditions leaves the power to management to do as they  please. That is until workers start fighting for themselves.

Brighton SolFed started a dispute with Jimmy's Restaurant's Marina branch regarding wage theft. The Restaurant was part of a bigger scam and tax fraud involving different branch and companies.

A former housekeeper in The Amsterdam Hotel received the full payment of his holiday entitlement after joining a SolFed campaign against wages theft.

Last month, Cheese & Toast, a cafe in Lewes Road, paid one of its former workers after having been contacted by SolFed.