Migrant workers experience in London
Britain's hotels are wholeheartedly recruiting migrant workers, currently around 60% of the industry's workforce. Migrant workers bring with them excellent skills; many were in hospitality before coming to work in Britain. They're promised good wages and a chance of promotion and success. This five-star hotel is a "home away from home. We are one big family," so a jobs guide induction tells its migrant workers.
But this widely advertised hotel's "way" doesn't feel like home to the migrants working in its restaurant section and stewarding department. Inside its magnificent, 19th-century building, constant bullying, harassment and verbal racism is the workers' daily experience. "You fuckers!" screams one line manager. "Don't be stupid like the Poles!""It's like working in a country within a country," says one sacked worker. "Our eyes have been opened by the abuse."
Another central London five-star hotel is refusing to compensate its abused waiters. One of them, Ahmet (not his real name) from Morocco, was overworked, bullied and racially harassed as the management uses local chefs as line managers to keep newcomers intimidated. Ahmet became ill after being shouted and screamed at, and spoken to with fingers pointed at his head for six long months. He burst into tears at work, and had to go on medication and seek counselling.
His colleagues also suffer from racial bullying, one of them physically abused by long-time customers the hotel is keen to keep. "These are the top luxury hotels. Just imagine the rest of them," says Julio Haro, race equality officer of GMB's hotel and catering branch. Unfortunately, he adds, mistreatment and poor working conditions are not the exception but the norm in the hotel sector.
It's all about cutting costs, says Salah Kerim, a former employee of several four- and five-star hotels and the ex-chair of the TGWU's hotel branch. Kerim came to London from Egypt 30 years ago to work as a waiter. "The cost-cutting drive is spreading like a disease and workers are finding it hard to cope." The hotel trade has long been dogged by its slave-labour reputation, with wage levels below even that of farm labourers.
The TGWU says 80% of Britain's hotels are not paying their workers more than the national minimum wage. Some employers use tips to bring wages up to the minimum. For waiters, it means a weekly pay packet of around £160. Half of the hotels - from three-star hotels to B&Bs - are paying workers less than the minimum. Migrant workers' hourly rate is, on average, £1 lower than that of British workers. Long working hours are common in hotels.
Many workers have to work double shifts and overtime goes unpaid or underpaid. Other common abuses include: the absence of employment contracts, no sick pay, no holiday pay or distorted forms of holiday pay (such as holiday pay being incorporated into wages), delayed payment of wages, no breaks, line-management bullying and unfair dismissal.
Migrant workers are at the sharp end of these chronically abusive practices. Their unfamiliarity with life in Britain makes them doubly vulnerable. Jan Mokrzycki, chair of the Federation of Poles, whose members comprise 100 Polish organisations in the UK, says that the abuse of employment rights is so prevalent that it is illegalising the Polish workers.
He explains: "In the hospitality sector, they're expected to overwork beyond their capacity - such as working 14 hours a day - and not get overtime pay. Most of them are employed by agencies who pay them much lower than the normal rate, some below the minimum. In such cases, agencies do not give payslips or register the workers, therefore forcing them to become illegal." Raj Gill, secretary of GMB's hotel and catering branch - with a membership of 1,500 hospitality workers of Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, West Indian and British nationalities - says that the exploitation by Britain's intermediaries (usually registered, legitimate employment agencies) has been a huge problem that the union is seeking to address.
"The outsourcing of hotel staff, mostly housekeeping staff, has created a two-tier system where migrant workers are on worse terms," he says. Kensington Close Hotel was sold by Six Continents to the privately owned group, Cola Hotel Group. Cola outsourced its permanent housekeeping staff to employment agency Calibre International under transfer of undertaking regulations last September.
The TGWU says that the hotel tried to prevent the union from being part of the consultations and that it had to threaten employment tribunal proceedings to allow union representation. The hotel's resident manager, Sven Lippinghof, refutes this allegation, saying that no staff member was denied representation either by a colleague or union during the consultation. The transferred workers are being paid £11,500 a year, according to two employees (one of whom has now left Calibre). "There's no question of a pay rise," says the ex-worker.
According to the TGWU, the 40 or so newly recruited agency maids - Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian and Mongolian workers - were being paid a piece rate of £2.08 per room, but in the past two weeks this has fallen to £1.40-£1.60 per room. As a result, some of them can end up earning less than they would on the minimum wage. Others are earning just £20 a day, while trainee maids worked up to three days "training" without pay.
"All our staff are paid the national minimum wage or above," says O'Mahony. "Some of our staff wish to undertake one or two days' introduction to the Kensington Close Hotel before their commitment to working there, and we recognise employees' statutory rights to join a trade union under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 and, therefore, would not discourage any member of staff from joining if they wish to. We value our staff as they are our biggest assets and ensure that they are happy at work."
TGWU official Hugh O'Shea says: "Some hotels and agencies simply don't care, because they know there is a steady supply of migrant workers. 'If the Polish workers are all gone, there will be the new workers from Bulgaria in future.' That's the thinking. They can just continue to recruit new workers. "As a union we should be able to enforce employment law and call in inspection on hotels. But we haven't been able to do so in Britain. When we demanded inspection, the Inland Revenue told us they were interested only in illegal immigration, not the minimum wage." Many migrant workers simply quit their jobs as the conditions became unbearable. The culture of intimidation of union members means that leaving the workplace seems much easier than trying to change it.
Historically, this is an industry with very low union penetration, with membership running at no more than 10 to 15%. It's a vicious circle: poor working conditions lead to high turnover of the workforce, which in turn keeps poor working conditions intact.
Bernard is from Ghana says: "My advice to those working in hotels? Join the union, work with campaign groups, and fight for your rights."
www.guardian.co.uk
But this widely advertised hotel's "way" doesn't feel like home to the migrants working in its restaurant section and stewarding department. Inside its magnificent, 19th-century building, constant bullying, harassment and verbal racism is the workers' daily experience. "You fuckers!" screams one line manager. "Don't be stupid like the Poles!""It's like working in a country within a country," says one sacked worker. "Our eyes have been opened by the abuse."
Another central London five-star hotel is refusing to compensate its abused waiters. One of them, Ahmet (not his real name) from Morocco, was overworked, bullied and racially harassed as the management uses local chefs as line managers to keep newcomers intimidated. Ahmet became ill after being shouted and screamed at, and spoken to with fingers pointed at his head for six long months. He burst into tears at work, and had to go on medication and seek counselling.
His colleagues also suffer from racial bullying, one of them physically abused by long-time customers the hotel is keen to keep. "These are the top luxury hotels. Just imagine the rest of them," says Julio Haro, race equality officer of GMB's hotel and catering branch. Unfortunately, he adds, mistreatment and poor working conditions are not the exception but the norm in the hotel sector.
It's all about cutting costs, says Salah Kerim, a former employee of several four- and five-star hotels and the ex-chair of the TGWU's hotel branch. Kerim came to London from Egypt 30 years ago to work as a waiter. "The cost-cutting drive is spreading like a disease and workers are finding it hard to cope." The hotel trade has long been dogged by its slave-labour reputation, with wage levels below even that of farm labourers.
The TGWU says 80% of Britain's hotels are not paying their workers more than the national minimum wage. Some employers use tips to bring wages up to the minimum. For waiters, it means a weekly pay packet of around £160. Half of the hotels - from three-star hotels to B&Bs - are paying workers less than the minimum. Migrant workers' hourly rate is, on average, £1 lower than that of British workers. Long working hours are common in hotels.
Many workers have to work double shifts and overtime goes unpaid or underpaid. Other common abuses include: the absence of employment contracts, no sick pay, no holiday pay or distorted forms of holiday pay (such as holiday pay being incorporated into wages), delayed payment of wages, no breaks, line-management bullying and unfair dismissal.
Migrant workers are at the sharp end of these chronically abusive practices. Their unfamiliarity with life in Britain makes them doubly vulnerable. Jan Mokrzycki, chair of the Federation of Poles, whose members comprise 100 Polish organisations in the UK, says that the abuse of employment rights is so prevalent that it is illegalising the Polish workers.
He explains: "In the hospitality sector, they're expected to overwork beyond their capacity - such as working 14 hours a day - and not get overtime pay. Most of them are employed by agencies who pay them much lower than the normal rate, some below the minimum. In such cases, agencies do not give payslips or register the workers, therefore forcing them to become illegal." Raj Gill, secretary of GMB's hotel and catering branch - with a membership of 1,500 hospitality workers of Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, West Indian and British nationalities - says that the exploitation by Britain's intermediaries (usually registered, legitimate employment agencies) has been a huge problem that the union is seeking to address.
"The outsourcing of hotel staff, mostly housekeeping staff, has created a two-tier system where migrant workers are on worse terms," he says. Kensington Close Hotel was sold by Six Continents to the privately owned group, Cola Hotel Group. Cola outsourced its permanent housekeeping staff to employment agency Calibre International under transfer of undertaking regulations last September.
The TGWU says that the hotel tried to prevent the union from being part of the consultations and that it had to threaten employment tribunal proceedings to allow union representation. The hotel's resident manager, Sven Lippinghof, refutes this allegation, saying that no staff member was denied representation either by a colleague or union during the consultation. The transferred workers are being paid £11,500 a year, according to two employees (one of whom has now left Calibre). "There's no question of a pay rise," says the ex-worker.
According to the TGWU, the 40 or so newly recruited agency maids - Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian and Mongolian workers - were being paid a piece rate of £2.08 per room, but in the past two weeks this has fallen to £1.40-£1.60 per room. As a result, some of them can end up earning less than they would on the minimum wage. Others are earning just £20 a day, while trainee maids worked up to three days "training" without pay.
"All our staff are paid the national minimum wage or above," says O'Mahony. "Some of our staff wish to undertake one or two days' introduction to the Kensington Close Hotel before their commitment to working there, and we recognise employees' statutory rights to join a trade union under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 and, therefore, would not discourage any member of staff from joining if they wish to. We value our staff as they are our biggest assets and ensure that they are happy at work."
TGWU official Hugh O'Shea says: "Some hotels and agencies simply don't care, because they know there is a steady supply of migrant workers. 'If the Polish workers are all gone, there will be the new workers from Bulgaria in future.' That's the thinking. They can just continue to recruit new workers. "As a union we should be able to enforce employment law and call in inspection on hotels. But we haven't been able to do so in Britain. When we demanded inspection, the Inland Revenue told us they were interested only in illegal immigration, not the minimum wage." Many migrant workers simply quit their jobs as the conditions became unbearable. The culture of intimidation of union members means that leaving the workplace seems much easier than trying to change it.
Historically, this is an industry with very low union penetration, with membership running at no more than 10 to 15%. It's a vicious circle: poor working conditions lead to high turnover of the workforce, which in turn keeps poor working conditions intact.
Bernard is from Ghana says: "My advice to those working in hotels? Join the union, work with campaign groups, and fight for your rights."
www.guardian.co.uk
posted by garrettmullan
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