Hotel staff set for 'historic' strike action over pay dispute
Workers at Glasgow's Village Hotel returned an overwhelming mandate for industrial action in July, with 100% of Unite and Union members voting in favour of strike action on an 81% turnout.
Unite said the dispute focuses on issues including low pay, equal pay, and work conditions, with most of the workers paid the National Minimum Wage (£12.21) rather than the real living wage (£12.60).
Workers are also fighting for equal pay for younger workers, who are paid £10.
The union has also claimed that the hotel is failing to pay workers for breaks.
Staff will begin their 'landmark' industrial action on Saturday, August 2.
'Our members at Village Hotels are taking this landmark industrial action because they are sick and tired of unpaid breaks and poverty pay which discriminates based on age,' Bryan Simpson, national lead for Unite's hospitality sector, said.
'The owners of Village Hotels have more than enough money to pay these workers what they deserve. If they want to stop the first strike at a major hotel in over 45 years, they should get round the table and negotiate with Unite and its members.'
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham added: 'Unite will have the back of our Village Glasgow hotel workers as they begin historic strike action. At the heart of this dispute is a fight over decent pay and working conditions.
'This is a wealthy company which is short-changing its hardworking staff. Unite will support these workers 100% every step in their fight.'
Workers at Village Glasgow previously won a backdated pay rise after Unite reps discovered a significant wage disparity that disproportionately affected young women.
They also received backdated pay for unpaid training over a period of up to two years.
There will be a public demonstration in support of the strike at 3pm on Sunday, August 3.
Village Hotels Glasgow has been contacted for comment.
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
12 hours ago
- BBC News
Gatwick strikes suspended after new pay offer
Strikes by baggage screeners at Gatwick Airport have been cancelled but further walkouts could still take place, the Unite union has screeners employed by ICTS were due to strike from 22 to 26 August over a pay dispute, but action has been suspended after an improved pay offer from said it would now ballot its members on the new offer. If rejected, the second round of strikes planned for 29 August to 2 September would go said it was "pleased" the proposed industrial action had been suspended. ICTS was contacted for comment. The union claims baggage screeners employed by ICTS are among the lowest paid workers at the airport and earn "just above minimum wage".Speaking before the new pay offer, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "ICTS has more than enough money to offer these workers a fair pay rise. Not doing so is just corporate greed."ICTS's Gatwick workers will receive Unite's complete backing for as long as it takes during their strikes for fair pay."The union said all flights out of Gatwick would be affected by the strikes and that ICTS was "entirely responsible" for the rejected this claim and said it was working to avoid any impacts and expected to operate a normal summer holiday flight schedule across strike dates.
The Herald Scotland
16 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
I'm sick of this discriminatory minimum wage policy exploiting Gen Z
The Herald reported earlier this week that more than half of young people are racking up thousands of pounds in debt thanks to low youth wage rates. The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) surveyed 198 young workers between May and June this year, and only 46% said they could always afford the basics in life, like food, transport and bills. Sir Keir Starmer promised to abolish youth wage rates during last year's general election campaign, and last July his Labour government committed to removing 'discriminatory age bands for adults'. But here we are, more than a year later, and young adults are still being paid a fraction of what they should be. Those aged 18-20 earn less than 82% of the national minimum wage. Sixteen and 17-year-olds earn less than 62% of the national minimum wage. Currently, the minimum wage for workers over 21 is £12.21, it is £10 for workers aged 18-20 and £7.55 for workers aged 16 and 17. Paying young people a poverty wage was the brilliant idea of Peter 'Prince of Darkness' Mandelson under Tony Blair's Labour government. The Low Pay Commission ('Low Pay Commission' sounds to me like a body created to keep wages low, but I digress) was set up to decide what the minimum wage should be in the late 1990s because until that point, there was no National Minimum Wage. Based on no conclusive research or evidence, the government argued that lower pay for young people would protect their jobs and tackle youth unemployment. Their hypothesis was that if businesses had to pay people under the age of 25 the real minimum wage, it would deter them from hiring the youth. Really, it was just a way to keep good on the promise to deliver a minimum wage for the people without alienating businesses. A loophole that allowed employers to continue to benefit from cheap labour. A 2015 report from the London School of Economics found that increasing the minimum wage for young people in the UK actually had little to no impact on employment. The entire premise that young people deserve less money for the same jobs is inherently flawed. The last time I checked, rent, utilities, broadband, transport, council tax, food, and all the other basic necessities were more or less the same price whether you are aged 20 or 30. So what logic allows a government to condemn a large swathe of the population to poverty? It requires a politician to look at the country and only see middle-class faces looking back. That young people deserve to be paid less hinges on the fiction that they live at home or have parental support and don't really need a full wage or don't have the financial responsibilities of an adult, even though they are one. This profile certainly was not true of me at aged 20. Ironically, I was supporting myself on £60 a week, less than a 27-year-old colleague living at home with their parents. Not everyone under 21 is in education or living at home. There are plenty of parents under the age of 21 who have their own families to support. Older Millennials, or Generation Y, were the first to feel the sting of the youth minimum wage. Today, you can just add it to the list of setbacks facing Millennials and Gen Z, the most financially disadvantaged generations in recent history. Since the 2008 financial crisis, wage growth has stagnated. People who work in minimum wage jobs are typically also battling with zero-hour contracts. In 1985, the average UK house prices were about 3.7 times the average salary – these days, it is around 6.1 times the average salary, according to Nationwide Building Society figures from 2024. To add insult to injury, a pint costs around four times as much these days compared to 1990. The entire concept that young people should be paid less than older people, just because of their age, is entirely absurd. There is a counterargument that suggests if we take ageism out of the minimum wage and abolish discriminatory age bands, it will send businesses that rely on this exploitative practice into a tailspin. But just because we have done something as a country for more than 25 years, it does not make it right or efficient. A far better policy is to have a blanket minimum wage that is kept in line with inflation. Apprentice or student exemptions for those training on the job would help keep it fairer for businesses. And to help with the transition, perhaps consider lowering VAT on hospitality, an industry that employs a huge number of young people. You could reduce business rates for small independent retailers to help them fund staff wages. Or, my favourite, you could introduce a wealth tax to help tackle the country's repugnant inequality. People should be paid the same to do the same work, regardless of the year they were born. Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1
Times
2 days ago
- Times
Unite agrees reduced £634m deal to buy rival Empiric
Unite is to cement its position as Britain's biggest student landlord after agreeing to buy one of its rivals for £634 million, a 10 per cent haircut on what it had originally proposed. Having taken a deeper look at Empiric's business over the summer Unite has decided to pursue a deal but only after knocking £71 million off its bid. 'As we went through due diligence, given their trading was tracking a little behind, we took a more cautious approach to occupancy this year and that fed into the pricing,' Joe Lister, chief executive of Unite, said.
